Podcasts about korla

Get yourself ready for a genderless jelly experience, cause this week the girls come in hot like the hip new hero that's saving ponyville, the Mysterious Mare Do Well. But it's not all heroics and do-gooding: Pinkie Pie goes Sam Kinison on some chocolate cake, we all cheat at chess, and we went to Armor Games and got lost in your legs. Help! Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/postponiespod.bsky.social Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci & https://bsky.app/profile/gigipup.bsky.social Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK & https://bsky.app/profile/poobisok.bsky.social Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob & https://bsky.app/profile/RubikScoob.bsky.social Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://bsky.app/profile/ciaran.operationglad.io Music by anosci - https://bsky.app/profile/anosci.net and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

What the fluff did you just say about us? I'll have you know we're back again with the girls to catch up with the ponyfolks. This episode, we recognize the furry cultural victory on PBS Kids, Fluttershy gets really excited to share her special interest, Rainbow Dash risks it all to impress some birds. Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci & https://bsky.app/profile/gigipup.bsky.social Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK & https://bsky.app/profile/poobisok.bsky.social Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob & https://bsky.app/profile/RubikScoob.bsky.social Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://bsky.app/profile/ciaran.operationglad.io Music by anosci - https://bsky.app/profile/anosci.net and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

Loop-de-hoop's on everypony! The girls return with an episode recorded in the distant, pre-2024 election past featuring Simone from Gohan or Go Home! This time on Pony Time, our AO3 tag blows up, Apple Bloom becomes the vehicle of fascism, and Applejack gets Apple Tingles. Find Simone: Twitter - https://twitter.com/originalmythros Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/mythros.bsky.social Find the pod: Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/postponiespod.bsky.social Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci & https://bsky.app/profile/gigipup.bsky.social Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK & https://bsky.app/profile/poobisok.bsky.social Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob & https://bsky.app/profile/RubikScoob.bsky.social Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/Ciaranxo Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

This episode we continue to follow the monk Xuanzang on his path along the silk road.  From Gaochang, he traveled through the Tarim Basin, up over the Tianshan Mountains, to the heart of the Western Gokturk Qaghanate.  From there, he traveled south, through the region of Transoxania to Bactria and the land of Tukhara.  He pushed on into the Hindu Kush, witnessing the stone Buddha statues of Bamiyan, and eventually made his way to the land of Kapisa, near modern Kabul, Afghanistan.  From there he would prepare to enter the Indian subcontinent: the home of the historical Buddha. For more discussion and some photos of the areas along this journey, check out our podcast blog at https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-121   Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 121: Journey to the West, Part 2   The cold winds blew through the travelers' doubled up clothing and thick furs.  Cold, wet ground meant that even two sets of boots were not necessarily enough after several days.  The frozen mist would often obscure everything except for the path immediately in front, hiding the peaks and making the sky a uniform white. In many places, the path would be blocked by rock, ice, or snow—the remnants of an avalanche, which could easily take an unsuspecting traveler.  And there was the elevation.  Hiking through the mountains, it was easy enough to reach heights of a mile or higher, and for those not accustomed to that elevation the thin air could take a surprising toll, especially if you were pushing yourself.  And the road was no less kind to the animals that would be hauling said travelers and their gear. And yet, this was the path that Xuanzang had agreed to.  He would continue to push through, despite the various deprivations that he would be subjected to.  No doubt he often wondered if it was worth it.  Then again, returning was just as dangerous a trip, so why not push on?   Last episode we introduced the monk Xuanzang, who traveled the Silk Road to India in the 7th century and returned to China.  He brought back numerous sutras to translate, and ended up founding a new school, known as the Faxian school—or the Hossou school in Japan.   As we mentioned last time, Xuanzang during his lifetime met with students from the archipelago when they visited the continent.  The records of his travels—including his biography and travelogue—are some of the best information we have on what life was like on the silk road around this time. In the last episode, we talked about Xuanzang: how he set out on his travels, his illegal departure from the Tang empire, and his perilous journey across the desert, ending up in Gaochang.  There, King Qu Wentai had tried to get him to stay, but he was determined to head out.  This episode we are going to cover his trip to Agni, Kucha, and Baluka—modern Aksu—and up to the Western Gokturk Qaghanate's capital of Suyab.  From there, we'll follow his footsteps through the Turkic controlled regions of Transoxania and into Tukhara, in modern Afghanistan.  Finally, we'll cover the last parts of his journey before he reached the start of his goal:  India. From Gaochang, Xuanzang continued on, through the towns he names as Wuban and Dujin, and into the country of Agni—known today as the area of Yanqi—which may also have been known as Wuqi.  The route was well-enough known, but it wasn't necessarily safe.  At one point, Xuanzang's caravan met with bandits, whom they were fortunately able to pay off.  The following night they encamped on a river bank with some merchants who also happened to be traveling the road.  The merchants, though, got up at midnight and headed out, hoping to get to the city early so that they could be the first ones to the market.  They only made it a few miles down the road, however, before they encountered more bandits, who slaughtered them and took their goods.  The following day, Xuanzang and his retinue came upon the merchants' remains lying in the road and saw the aftermath of the massacre. This was an unforgiving land, and the road was truly dangerous, even for those who traveled it regularly.  And yet Xuanzang was planning to travel its entire length until he reached India. So with little alternative, they carried on to the royal city of Agni. Agni, or Yanqi, sits on the southwestern edge of the basin, west of Bositeng lake, on the border between the Turfan basin and the larger Tarim Basin.  The name is thought to be a Tocharian—or Turfanian—name for the city, which is also known as Karashr. According to the biography by Huili, Xuanzang and his party didn't stay long in Agni.  Apparently Agni and Gaochang were not exactly on friendly terms, and even though the King of Agni and his ministers reportedly came out to greet Xuanzang and welcome him to their city, they refused to provide any horses.  They spent a single night and moved on. That said, Agni still made an impression on Xuanzang.  He noted how the capital was surrounded by hills on four sides, making it naturally defensible.  As for the people, he praises them as honest and straightforward.  They wore clothing of felt and hemp cloth, and cut their hair short, without hats or any kind of headwear.  Even the climate was pleasant, at least for the short time he was there.  He also notes that they used a script based on India—likely referring to the Brahmic script, which we find in the Tarim basin. However, as for the local lord, the King of Agni, he is a little less charitable.  Xuanzang claimed he was brave but “lacked resourcefulness” and he was a bit of a braggart.  Furthermore, the country had “no guiding principles or discipline and government orders are imperfect and not seriously implemented.”  He also mentioned the state of Buddhism in the country, noting that they were followers of Sarvastivada school, a Theravada sect popular along the Silk Road at the time.  Xuanzang was apparently not too pleased with the fact that they were not strict vegetarians, including the “three kinds of pure meat”.  From Agni, Xuanzang continued southwest, heading for the kingdom of Kucha.  He seems to have bypassed the nearby kingdom of Korla, south of Agni, and headed some 60 or 70 miles, climbing over a ridge and crossing two large rivers, and then proceeding another 200 miles or so to the land of Kucha. Kucha was a kingdom with over one hundred monasteries and five thousand monks following a form of Theravada Buddhism.  Here, Xuanzang was welcomed in by the king, Suvarnadeva, described as having red hair and blue eyes.  While Xuanzang was staying in Kucha, it is suspected that he probably visited the nearby Kizil grotto and the Buddhist caves, there, which include a painting of King Suvarnadeva's father, King Suvarnapuspa, and his three sons. You can still visit Kucha and the Kizil grottos today, although getting there is quite a trek, to be sure.  The ancient Kuchean capital is mostly ruins, but in the Kizil caves, protected from the outside elements, you can find vivid paintings ranging from roughly the 4th to the 8th century, when the site was abandoned.  Hundreds of caves were painted, and many still demonstrate vibrant colors.  The arid conditions protect them from mold and mildew, while the cave itself reduces the natural bleaching effect of sunlight.  The paintings are in numerous styles, and were commissioned by various individuals and groups over the years.  They also give us some inkling of how vibrant the city and similar structures must have been, back when the Kuchean kingdom was in its heyday. The people of Kucha are still something of a mystery.  We know that at least some of them spoke an Indo-European language, related to a language found in Agni, and both of these languages are often called Tocharian, which we discussed last episode.  Xuanzang himself noted that they used Indian writing, possibly referring to the Brahmi script, or perhaps the fact that they seem to have used Sanskrit for official purposes, such as the inscription on the cave painting at Kizil giving the name of King Suvarnapuspa.  The Kucheans also were clothed in ornamental garments of silk and embroidery.  They kept their hair cut, wearing a flowing covering over their heads—and we see some of that in the paintings. Xuanzang also notes that though we may think of this area as a desert, it was a place where rice and grains, as well as fruit like grapes, pomegranates, plums, pears, peaches, and almonds were grown.  Even today, modern Xinjiang grows some absolutely fantastic fruit, including grapes, which are often dried into raisins. Another point of interest for Xuanzang may have been that Kucha is known as the hometown of none other than Kumarajiva.  We first mentioned Kumarajiva back in episode 84.  Kumarajiva was one of the first people we know of who translated many of the sutras from India that were then more widely disseminated throughout the Yellow River and Yangzi river basins.  His father was from India and his mother was a Kuchean princess.  In the middle of the 4th century, when he was still quite young, he traveled to India and back with his mother on a Buddhist pilgrimage.  Later he would start a massive translation project in Chang'an.  His translations are credited with revolutionizing Chinese Buddhism. Xuanzang was initially welcomed by the king, his ministers, and the revered monk, Moksagupta.  They were accompanied by several thousand monks who set up tents outside the eastern gate, with portable Buddha images, which they worshipped, and then Xuanzang was taken to monastery after monastery until sunset.  At one of the monasteries, in the southeast of the city, there were several tens of monks who originally came from Gaochang, and since Xuanzang had come from there, they invited him to stay with them. The next day he met and feasted with the King, politely declining any meat, and then went to the monastery in the northwest to meet with the famous monk: Moksagupta.  Moksagupta himself had made the journey to India, and had spent 20 years there himself.  It seems like this would have been the perfect person for Xuanzang to talk to about his plans, but instead, the two butted heads.  Moksagupta seems to have seen Xuanzang's Mahayana faith as heretical.  He saw no reason for Xuanzang to travel all the way to India when he had all the sutras that anyone needed there in Kucha, along with Moksagupta himself.   Xuanzang's response seems to have been the Tang dynasty Buddhist version of “Okay, Boomer”, and then he went ahead and tore apart Moksagupta's understanding of his own sutras—or so Xuanzang relayed to his biographers.  We don't exactly have Moksagupta's side, and, let's face it, Xuanzang and his biographers are not necessarily reliable narrators.  After all, they followed Mahayana teachings, which they considered the “Greater Vehicle”, and they referred to the Theravada teachings as the “Hinayana” or “Lesser Vehicle”.  Meanwhile, Theravada Buddhists likely saw many of the Mahayana texts as extraneous, even heretical, not believing them to actually be the teachings of the Buddha. It must have been winter time, as the passes through the mountains on the road ahead were still closed, and so Xuanzang stayed in Kucha, spending his time sightseeing and meeting with various people.  He even went back to see Moksagupta, but the older monk shunned him, and would get up and exit the room rather than engaging with him, so they had no more conversations. Eventually, Xuanzang continued on his way west, following along the northern rim of the Tarim basin.  Two days out from Kucha, disaster struck.  Some two thousand or so Turkish bandits suddenly appeared—I doubt Xuanzang was counting, so it may have been more or less.  I imagine that memories of what had happened to the merchants near Agni must have gone through Xuanzang's mind.   Fortunately, for him, they were fighting over loot that they had pillaged from various travelers, and since they couldn't share it equally, they fell to fighting each other and eventually dispersed. He travelled for almost 200 miles after that, stopping only for a night at the Kingdom of Baluka, aka Gumo—the modern city of Aksu.  This was another Theravada Buddhist kingdom.  Xuanzang noted tens of Buddhist temples, and over 1000 Buddhist monks.  The country was not large—about 200 miles east to west and 100 miles north to south.  For reference that means it was probably comparable in size with Kyushu, in terms of overall area, or maybe the size of Denmark—excluding Greenland—or maybe the US state of Maryland.  Xuanzang described the country as similar to Kucha in just about every way, including the written language and law, but the spoken language was different, though we don't get many more details. From Baluka, he crossed northward through the Tianshan mountains, which are classified as an extension of the Pamirs known as the Ice Mountains.  Had he continued southwest, he would have hit Kashgar and crossed over between the Pamir and Tian Shan ranges into the Ferghana valley, but instead he turned north. We don't know exactly why he took this perilous option, but the route that may have been popular at the time as it was one of the most direct routes to the seat of the Western Gokturk Empire, which he was currently traveling through. The Tian Shan mountains were a dangerous journey.  Avalanches could block the road—or worse.  Xuanzang describes the permanent ice fields—indeed, it is the ice fields and glaciers of the Tian Shan that melt in the summer and provide the oasis towns of the Tarim Basin with water, even to this day.  In Xuanzang's day, those glaciers were likely even more prevalent than today, especially as they have been recorded as rapidly disappearing since 1961.  And where you weren't on snow and ice, the ground was probably wet and damp from the melt.  To keep warm, you would wear shoes over your shoes, along with heavy fur coats, all designed to reduce exposure. Xuanzang claims that 3 or 4 of every 10 people didn't survive the crossing—and that horses and oxen fared even worse.  Even if these numbers are an exaggeration, the message is clear:  This was a dangerous journey. After about seven days, Xuanzang came out of the mountains to the “Great Pure Lake”, the “Da Qing Hai”, also known as the Hot Sea or the Salt Sea, which likely refers to Issyk Kul.  The salt content, along with the great volume of water it possesses, means that the lake rarely freezes over, which is likely why it is seen as “hot” since it doesn't freeze when the fresh water nearby does.  This lake is the second largest mountain lake in the world, and the second deepest saltwater lake.  Traveling past the lake, he continued to Suyab, near modern Tokmok, in Kyrgyzstan, just west of the modern capital of Bishkek.  This was an old Sogdian settlement, and had since become the capital of the Western Gokturks.  Sogdians—like Xuanzang's guide, Vandak—were integral to the Gokturk kingdom. Their language was the lingua franca of the Silk Road, and at the time of the Gokturk Khaganate, it was also the official court language, and so when Xuanzang appeared at the court of the Great Khagan of the Western Gokturks, it was likely the language of diplomacy. When we think of Turkic people, many in the English speaking world think of Turkiye, and perhaps of the mighty Ottoman empire.  Some may think of Turkmenistan, Kazhakstan, Kyrgyzstan, or Uzbekistan, among others.  And of course, there are the Uyghur people in Xinjiang.  All of these people claim roots in the ancestral Turkic homeland in the Altai mountains, which sit largely in western Mongolia, north of China's Xinjiang region.  Much like the Xiongnu and the Mongols, they were pastoral nomads, moving their herds across the steppes, often covering great distances.  They would regularly move through different regions, perhaps returning each season, though sometimes not returning for years at a time.  They were often seen as barbarians by settled people living in cities, and yet their goods and horses were highly prized. Nomad and sedentary lifestyles would often collide.  Farmers would turn pastureland into fields, and when the nomadic people returned on their circuits, they would find walls and fences where there was once open land, and the people there would claim to “own” the land, a concept often foreign to people who were always on the move.  Nomadic people, such as the Gokturks, were not necessarily keeping vast libraries of records about themselves and their histories, and so much of what we get comes from external sources, which do not always have incredibly reliable narrators.  To many of the settled agriculturalists, groups like the Turks were marauders who raided their villages and farms.  They were a great bogeyman of the steppes, which required the firm hand of strong defenses to keep out—or so their opponents would want people to think. While they were known for their warfare, which incorporated their mobility, but they were keenly interested in trade, as well.  They understood the value of the trade routes and the various cities and states that they included in their empire.  Thus, the Sogdians and the Gokturks seem a natural fit: the Sogdians were more settled, but not entirely so, as demonstrated by their vast trade networks.  And the Sogdians also were part of the greater central Eurasian steppe culture, so the two cultures understood each other, to a degree.  They are even depicted similarly in art, with slight differences, such as long hair that was often associated with Turks over the Sogdians.  In some areas of the Gokturk empire, Sogdians would run the cities, while the Gokturks provided military aid and protection. Xuanzang's description of the people of Suyab, or the “City of Suye River”, doesn't pick out anyone in particular, and he even says that it was a place where traders of the Hu, or foreign, tribes from different countries mingle their abodes.  He mentions the people here as being called Suli, which is also the name given to the language—this may refer to “Sogdian” in general.  They write with an alphabet that is written vertically rather than horizontally—this may refer to a few scripts that were written this way, possibly based off Syriac or Aramaic alphabets that were adapted to Sogdian and other Iranian languages, but it isn't clear. We are told that the people dressed in felt and hemp clothing, with fur and “cotton” garments.  Their clothes fit tightly, and they kept their hair cut short, exposing the top of their heads—though sometimes they shaved it completely, tying a colored silk band around the forehead. He goes on to describe these people as greedy liars, possibly a reference to the mercantile nature of many of the people at the time. Something to note: The Turks of this time had not yet encountered Islam, which was just now starting to rise up in the Middle East.  The Prophet Muhammad is said to have been born around the end of the 6th century CE and was preaching in the early 7th century, though his teachings would begin to spread outward soon enough.  But that means that the Gokturks were not an Islamic empire.  Rather, their own traditions seem to have focused on the worship of Tengri, an Altaic personification of the universe, often simplified as a “sky god”.  Tengrism can be found amongst the Xiongnu, Mongols, and others, and it was the national religion of the Gokturks themselves, but there were many who also adopted other religions that they encountered, including Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Buddhism.  In fact, Xuanzang notes that the Turks he met in Suyab would not sleep or sit on beds made of wood because wood was thought to contain the spirit of fire, which he says they worshipped.  That sounds similar to Zoroastrian beliefs, where fire is associated with Ahura Mazda, who is also worshipped as a sky god.  These may have been beliefs inherited from their Eastern Iranian Sogdian partners. In Xuanzang's biography, we are given more details about his visit to Suyab.  Apparently, as he was headed to the city, he met a hunting party, which we are told was the retinue of Yehu Khan.  Hunting was an important part of life on the steppes, and it continued to be a favorite sport of the Gokturk nobility. Yehu Khan—possibly Yagbhu Khan, though that is up for some debate—is described as being dressed in a green silk robe, with his hair exposed, and wearing  a turban of white silk about ten feet long that wrapped his forehead and hung behind his back.  His “hunting” expedition wasn't just a couple of the guys.  It included about 200 officials, all with plaited hair and dressed in brocade robes—they weren't exactly out there roughing it.  He also had his soldiers, dressed in furs, felt, or fine woolen clothes, and there were so many cavalry that they stretched out of sight.  The Khan seemed pleased to meet Xuanzang, but his hunt was expected to last another couple of days, at least, so he sent an attendant named Dharmaja to take Xuanzang back to wait for the Khan to return. Three days later, Xuanzang was given an audience.  The khan was seated in a large yurt.  Xuanzang noted the seeming incongruity between the khan, sitting there in the tent, decorated with golden flowers, with the officials dressed in magnificent brocade garments sitting in two long rows in front of him and the armed guards behind him, compared to the simple felt walls of the tent. A ”yurt” is a common feature of nomadic life on the steppes.  It wasn't exactly a single person operation to haul them around, but they can be taken down and put up with relative ease.  And while yurts could be relatively simple, there are examples of much more elaborate structures.  There is little reason they couldn't be made larger, perhaps with some extra support.  In later centuries, there are examples of giant yurts that seem like real construction projects.  Use of tents, even in a city, where they had permanent palace buildings, was likely a means of retaining the nomadic steppe traditions, even while enjoying the benefits of city life. Whom exactly Xuanzang met with is a matter of debate.  His records seem to indicate that it was Tong Yabghu Qaghan of the Western Gokturk Khaganate, but other sources say that Tong Yabghu Qaghan died in 628, and the earliest Xuanzang could have been meeting with him was 630, two years later, so if that is the case, he must have met with Tong Yabghu's son, Si Yabghu Qaghan.  It is likely that Xuanzang, who was dictating his accounts years after, mentioned the Qaghan and then, when they looked up who it was, they simply made a mistake.  Remember, Xuanzang would have had everything translated through one or two languages.  He did know what he saw, however, and he recounted what he remembered. Tong Yabghu Qaghan oversaw the height of the Gokturk Qaghanate, and appears to have favored the Buddhist religion, though there were many different religions active in their territories at the time.  They oversaw an extremely cosmopolitan empire covering huge swaths of central Eurasia, including the lucrative silk road.  Xuanzang notes that at the court there were individuals from Gaochang and even a messenger from the Han—which is to say the Tang Empire.  One wonders if Xuanzang—or anyone at that time—realized just how tenuous the Khan'sposition was.  After Tong Yabghu's death, the Qaghanate would decline, and less than a decade later it would fall to the Tang dynasty, who took Suyab and made it their western outpost.  In fact, Suyab is thought to have been the birthplace, over a century later, of a young boy who would find a love of poetry.  That boy's name was Li Bai, or Ri Haku, in Japanese. He would become one of the most famous poets in Chinese history, and his poems were even known and studied in Japan.  And it was largely through Japanese study of Li Bai's poems that his works came to the English speaking world: first through Ernest Fenollosa, who had studied in Japan, and then by the celebrated Ezra Pound, who had used Ernest's notes to help with his own translations of the poems. This was, though, as I said, over a century after Xuanzang's journey.  At the time of our story, the Qaghan was throwing a feast, including Xuanzang and all of the foreign envoys.  Xuanzang comments on the food and drink—his hosts provided grape juice in lieu of wine, and cooked a special vegetarian feast just for him, while the other guests ate a feast of meat, such as veal, lamb, fish, and the like.  There was also the music of various regions along the Silk Road, which Xuanzang found to be catchy, but of course not as refined as the music he was used to, of course.  After dinner Xuanzang was asked to expound upon the Darma, largely about the basic principle that you should be kind to one another—I doubt he was getting into the deep mysteries of Buddhist philosophy. Xuanzang stuck around the court for three more days, during which time the Qaghan tried to get him to stay, but Xuanzang insisted that he had to make it to India.  And so the Qaghan relented.  He found men in his army who could translate for Xuanzang along his journey, and had letters of introduction written to at least as far as the state of Kapisa, in modern Afghanistan. And so, armed with the Qaghan's blessing and a fresh translator, Xuanzang struck out again.  They headed westward for over one hundred miles, eventually reaching Bingyul, aka the Thousand Springs.  This is the area where the Qaghan and his court would spend his summers, and the deer in the area were protected under his orders, so that they were not afraid of humans—which sounds similar to the situation with the deer in Nara.  Continuing on another fifty miles or so—the distances are approximate as Xuanzang's primary duty was not exactly to map all of this out—Xuanzang arrived at the city of Taras, in modern Kazakhstan, another place where the cultures of the Silk Road mixed and mingled.  Xuanzang didn't have much to say about Taraz, apparently, though it is one of the oldest cities in Transoxania, founded near the beginning of the Common Era.  A few miles south of there, Xuanzang reportedly found a village of re-settled ethnic Han that had been captured by the Gokturks and settled here.  They had adopted the dress and customs of the Turkic people, but continued to speak a version of Chinese. Southwest of that he reached the City of White Water, likely referring to Aksukent.  This is the same “Aksu” as the city in Xinjiang, both of which mean “White Water” in Turkic, but this one is in the south of Kazakhstan.  Xuanzang found the climate and products an improvement over what he had experienced in Taras.  Beyond that, he next arrived at the city of Gongyu, and then south again to Nujkend, and then traveling westward to the country of Chach, aka Tashkent.  Both Nujkend and Chach were large cities in nations of smaller, mostly autonomous city-states, which made up a lot of the political geography of Transoxania. I would note that Xuanzang's notes here are much more sparse than previously.  This may be because these were outside of the Tarim basin and therefore of less interest to individuals in the Tang empire.  Or perhaps he was just making his way more quickly and not stopping at every kingdom along the way. From Tashkent, he continued southeast to the Ferghana valley—the country of Feihan.  Oddly, this country doesn't appear in Xuanzang's biography, even though the Ferghana Valley seems to have been fairly well known back in the Tang Empire—it was known as the home of some of the best horses, which were one of its first major exports.  In fact, the Han dynasty even mounted a military expedition to travel to Ferghana just to obtain horses.  Xuanzang is oddly silent on this; however, he does talk about the fertile nature of the land.  He mentions that their language here is different from the lands he had been traveling through up to this point, and also points out that the people of the Ferghana valley were also visibly different from others in the area. From the Ferghana valley, Xuanzang headed west for about 300 miles or more to the land of Sutrushana—perhaps referring to the area of Ushrusana, with its capital of Bunjikat.  This country was also largely Sogdian, and described as similar to Tashkent.  From there, he traveled west through a great desert, passing skeletons, which were the only marker of the trail other than a view of the far off mountains.  Finally, they reached Samarkand, known as the country of “Kang” in Chinese, which was also the term used to mark Sogdians who claimed descent from the people of Samarkand. Samarkand is another of the ancient cities of Central Asia, and even today is the third largest city in modern Uzbekistan.  Human activity in the region goes back to the paleolithic era, and the city was probably founded between the 8th and 7th centuries BCE.  Samarkand was conquered by Alexander the Great, and during the Achaemenid Empire it was the capital of Sogdiana.  During Xuanzang's visit, Samarkand was described as an impenetrable fortress with a large population. For all of his travel, Samarkand was the first place Xuanzang notes as specifically not a Buddhist land.  In fact, there were two monasteries, suggesting that there had been Buddhists, but if any monks tried to stay there then the locals would chase them out with fire.  Instead, they worshipped fire—likely meaning Ahura Mazda and Zoroastrianism.  This leads to a story that I have to wonder about, given the reliability of our narrators. It is said that Xuanzang was met by the King with arrogance, but after staying the night Xuanzang was able to tell the King about Buddhism and its merits.  The king was intrigued, and asked to observe the Precepts, and treated Xuanzang with hospitality and respect.  So when two of Xuanzang's attendants went to the monasteries to worship, they were chased out with fire.  When the king heard about this, he had the people arrested and ordered their hands to be cut off.  Xuanzang could not bear to witness such suffering, however, and he intervened to have them spared.  So instead the king had them flogged and banished from the city.  Ever since then, all the people believed in Buddhism. Some parts of this strike true.  It was likely that the king would entertain this strange wanderer who had arrived with letters from the great Qaghan—that may have even explained why Xuanzang had been encouraged to make the dangerous journey to Suyab in the first place, so that he could obtain such permission.  And it would not be strange for the king to listen to his teachings.  If Xuanzang's attendants were attacked, that would have been a huge breach of hospitality, and however the King felt about it, he no doubt had to do something about it.  And so all of that sounds somewhat believable.  Does that mean everyone suddenly converted to Buddhism?  I don't know that I'm quite willing to go that far.  It is also likely that there were Buddhists there already, even if the majority religion was Zoroastrianism. From Samarkand, Xuanzang traveled farther southwest, to the country of Kasanna, which seems to have been the edge of what we might call Sogdiana.   According to his biographers, however, there was a little more to all of this.  Rather, he headed west to Kusanika.  Then he traveled to  Khargan, and further on to the country of Bukhara, and then to Vadi.  All of these were “An” in Chinese, which was the name element used for Sogdians from this region.  He then continued west to the country of Horismika, on the other side of the Amu Darya, aka the Oxus River of Transoxanian fame. From there he traveled further southwest, entering into the mountains.  The path here was often such that they had to travel single-file, and there was no food or water other than what you brought with you.  Eventually they came to a set of doors, known as the Iron Gate.  This was a Turkic fortress.  It was no doubt fortuitous that he had come from his meeting with the Qaghan, and likely had permission to pass through.  From there, they entered the country of Tukhara. As we noted in Episode 119, Tukhara was in the region of Bactria.  It was bordered by the Pamir range in the east, and the Persian empire in the west.  There were also the Great Snow Mountains in the south, likely referencing the Hindu Kush. Tukhara had been conquered by the Gokturks just within the past couple of decades, and Xuanzang notes that the country had been split into largely autonomous city-states as the local royalty had died without an heir many years before.  With the Gokturk conquest, it was now administered by Tardu Shad, the son of Tong Yabghu Qaghan.  “Shad” in this case was a local title. Here, Xuanzang's narrative gets a little dicey, especially between his biography and his records.  The records of the Western Regions denotes various countries in this area.  It is unclear if he traveled to all of them or is just recounting them from records he obtained.  He does give us at least an overview of the people and the region.  I would also note that this is one of the regions he visited, again, on his return trip, and so may have been more familiar with the region than those areas he had passed through from Suyab on down. For one thing, he notes that the language of the region was different from that of the “Suli”, which appears to refer to the Sogdians.  This was the old territory of the Kushan empire, and they largely spoke Bactrian.  Like Sogdian, it was another Eastern Iranian language, and they used an alphabet based largely on Greek, and written horizontally rather than vertically.  They also had their own coins. This region had plenty of Buddhist communities, and Xuanzang describes the cities and how many monasteries they had, though, again, it isn't clear if he actually visited all of them or not.  These are countries that Li Rongji translates as “Tirmidh”, “Sahaaniyan”, “Kharuun”, “Shuumaan”, etc. It does seem that Xuanzang made it to the capital city, the modern city Kunduz, Afghanistan. Xuanzang actually had something specific for the local Gokturk ruler, Tardu Shad.  Tardu Shad's wife was the younger sister of King Qu Wentai of Gaochang, whom we met last episode.  Qu Wentai had provided Xuanzang a letter for his younger sister and her husband.  Unfortunately, Xuanzang arrived to learn that the princess of Gaochang had passed away, and Tardu Shad's health was failing.  It does seem that Tardu Shad was aware of Xuanzang, however—a letter had already come from Qu Wentai to let them know that Xuanzang was on his way.  As I mentioned last episode, letters were an important part of how communities stayed tied together.  Of course, given the perils of the road, one assumes that multiple letters likely had to be sent just in case they didn't make it.  The US Postal Service this was not. Tardu Shad, though not feeling well, granted an interview with Xuanzang.  He suggested that Xuanzang should stick around.  Then, once the Shad had recovered from his illness, he would accompany Xuanzang personally on his trip to India.  Unfortunately, that was not to be.  While Xuanzang was staying there, he was witness to deadly drama.  Tardu Shad was recovering, which was attributed to the recitations by an Indian monk who was also there.  This outcome was not exactly what some in the court had wanted.  One of the Shad's own sons, known as the Tagin prince, plotted with the Shad's current wife, the young Khatun, and she poisoned her husband.  With the Shad dead, the throne might have gone to the son of the Gaochang princess, but he was still too young.  As such, the Tagin Prince was able to usurp the throne himself, and he married his stepmother, the young Khatun.  The funeral services for the late Tardu Shad meant that Xuanzang was obliged to stay at Ghor for over a month. During that time, Xuanzang had a seemingly pleasant interaction with an Indian monk.  And when he finally got ready to go, he asked the new Shad for a guide and horses.  He agreed, but also made the suggestion that Xuanzang should then head to Balkh.  This may have meant a bit of backtracking, but the Shad suggested that it would be worth it, as Balkh had a flourishing Buddhist community. Fortunately, there was a group of Buddhist monks from Balkh who happened to be in Kunduz to express their condolences at the passing of Tardu Shad, and they agreed to accompany Xuanzang back to their hometown, lest he end up getting lost and taking the long way there. The city of Balkh is also known as “Baktra”, as in “Bactria”, another name of this region.  A settlement has been there since at least 500 BCE , and it was already an important city when it was captured by Alexander the Great.  It sits at the confluence of several major trade routes, which no doubt were a big part of its success.  Xuanzang's biography notes that it was a massive city, though it was relatively sparsely populated—probably due to the relatively recent conquest by the Gokturks, which had occurred in the last couple of decades.  That said, there were still thousands of monks residing at a hundred monasteries in and around the city.  They are all characterized as monks of Theravada schools.  Southwest of the city was a monastery known as Navasamgharama, aka Nava Vihara, or “New Monastery”.  Despite its name, the monastery may have actually been much older, going back to the Kushan emperor Kaniska, in the 2nd century CE.  Ruins identified as this “New Monastery” are still visible south of Balkh, today. The monastery is described as being beautifully decorated, and it seems that it had a relic—one of the Buddha's teeth.  There are also various utensils that the Buddha is said to have used, as well.  The objects would be displayed on festival days.  North of the monastery there was a stupa more than 200 feet in height.  South of the monastery was a hermitage.  Each monk who studied there and passed away would have a stupa erected for them, as well.  Xuanzang notes that there were at around 700 memorial stupas, such that they had to be crammed together, base to base. It was here that Xuanzang met a young monk named Prajnaakara, who was already somewhat famous in India, and well-studied.  When questioned about certain aspects of Buddhism, Xuanzang was impressed by the monk's answers, and so stayed there a month studying with the young monk. Eventually, Xuanzang was ready to continue on his journey.  He departed Balkh towards the south, accompanying the teacher Prajnakara, and together they entered the Great Snow Mountains, aka the Hindu Kush.  This path was even more dangerous than the trip through the Tian Shan mountains to Suyab.   They eventually left the territory of Tukhara and arrived at Bamiyan.  Bamiyan was a kingdom in the Hindu Kush, themselves an extension of the Himalayan Mountain range.  It Is largely based around valley, home to the modern city of Bamyan, Afghanistan, which sits along the divide between Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.  Today it is a major center for individuals of the Hazara ethnic group, one of the main ethnic groups in Afghanistan, which is a multi-ethnic state that includes, today, the Pashtun, Hazara, Tajik, and Uzbek people, along with a number of smaller ethnic groups.  Today they largely reside in the mountainous areas of the Hindu Kush. Bamiyan made an impact on our protagonist.   Their language was slightly different from that in Tukhara, but using the same—or similar enough—writing system.  Buddhism was thriving in the capital, and we are told of a rock statue of the standing Buddha, over a hundred feet in height, along with a copper statue of the standing Buddha nearby.    There was also another reclining Buddha a mile or two down the road.  There were multiple monasteries with thousands of monks, and the ruler of that kingdom received Xuanzang well. Xuanzang wasn't the first monk to travel to Bamiyan from the Middle Kingdom—in this he was, perhaps unwittingly, on the trail of the monk Faxian.  Faxian likely did not see these statues, though, as we believe they were built in the 6th and early 7th century—at least the stone Buddha statues.  They were a famous worship site until February 2001, when the Taliban gave an order to destroy all of the statues in Afghanistan.  Despite this, they were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. Fortunately, we have images from before their destruction.  These statues were a blend of Greco-Buddhist and Gandharan art styles—appropriate as it stands between the Hellenistic area of Tukhara and the ancient region of Gandhara—including the modern city of Kandahar and into the Indus Valley region of Pakistan. Continuing east through the mountains, Xuanzang eventually came out at the kingdom of Kapisa.  This may have had its capital around modern-day Bagram, north of modern Kabul, but the country seems to have been quite large.  Kapisa over saw some tens of other countries, and it is thought that at one time its influence extended from Bamyan and Kandahar to the area of modern Jalalabad.  Their language was even more different than that of Tukhara, but they were still using the same writing system.  The king of Kapisa is said to have been of Suli ethnicity—which would seem to indicate that he was Sogdian, or at least descended from people of the Transoxanian region.    Xuanzang notes that the ruler, as rough and fiery as he is described—as a true warlord or similar—he nonetheless made a silver image of the Buddha, eighteen feet in height, every year.  He also gave charity to the poor and needy in an assembly that was called every five years.  There were over one hundred monasteries and some 6000 monks, per Xuanzang's recollection, and notably, they were largely following Mahayana teachings. For the most part the monks that Xuanzang had encountered on this journey were Theravada—Xuanzang refers to them as “Hinayana”, referring to the “Lesser Vehicle” in contrast to Xuanzang's own “Mahayana”, or “Greater Vehicle”.  “Theravada” refers to the “way of the elders” and while Mahayana Buddhism largely accepts the sutras of Theravada Buddhism, there are many Mahayana texts that Theravada Buddhists do not believe are canonical.  We discussed this back in Episode 84. There was apparently a story of another individual from the Yellow River being sent as a hostage to Kapisa when it was part of the Kushan Empire, under Kanishka or similar.  Xuanzang recounts various places that the hostage, described as a prince, lived or visited while in the region.  Xuanzang's arrival likely stirred the imagination of people who likely knew that the Tang were out there, but it was such a seemingly impossible distance for most people.  And yet here was someone who had traveled across all of that distance.  One of the monasteries that claimed to have been founded because of that ancient Han prince invited Xuanzang to stay with them.  Although it was a Theravada monastery, Xuanzang took them up on the offer, both because of the connection to someone who may have been his countryman, but also because of his traveling companion, Prajnakara, who was also a Theravada monk, and may not be comfortable staying at a Mahayana monastery. Xuanzang spends a good deal of ink on the stories of how various monasteries and other sites were founded in Kapisa and the surrounding areas.  He must have spent some time there to accumulate all of this information.  It is also one of the places where he seems to have hit at least twice—once on the way to India, and once during his return journey. The King of Kapisa is said to have been a devotee of Mahayana Buddhism.  He invited Xuanzang and Prajnakara to come to a Mahayana monastery to hold a Dharma gathering.  There they met with several leading figures in the monastery, and they discussed different theories.  This gathering lasted five days, and at the end, the king offered Xuanzang and the other monks five bolts of pure brocade and various other gifts.  Soon thereafter, the monk Prajnakara was invited back to Tukhara, and so he and Xuanzang parted ways. And it was about time for Xuanzang to continue onwards as well.  From Kapisa, he would travel across the “Black Range” and into Lampaka.  This may refer to the area of Laghman or Jalalabad.  Today, this is in modern Afghanistan, but for Xuanzang, this would have been the northwestern edge of India.  He was almost there. And so are we, but we'll save his trip into India for next episode. Until then thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

Last time we continued to speak about the insane battle over Southern Xinjiang. In Yarkland, chaos erupted as inflation soared, prompting Chinese officials to retreat to fortified New City. Panic led to desperate measures, including the use of dummy figures for defense. As insurgents advanced, Colonel Chin's forces looted and fled, sparking violence against Uyghurs and Hindu moneylenders. By April, rebel forces captured Kashgar, fracturing Chinese control. Amid shifting alliances, Ma Chanzeng sought power, but internal strife among leaders like Temur culminated in further violence and betrayal, with power ultimately shifting to the Khotanlik provisional government under Muhammad Amin Bughra. Abdullah's revelation ignited conflict among Muslim troops. The Uyghurs and Kirghiz briefly united against the Chinese, ultimately capturing the New City. As tensions rose, massacres occurred, fracturing alliances and leading to a power struggle. After the execution of Uyghur leader Temur, Abdullah seized control of Yarkland, while charismatic Tawfiq Bay rallied forces against the Tungans. Eventually, the Khotan Amirs dominated the region, achieving unity amidst chaos, leaving only the besieged Tungans at bay.   #135 Kumul Rebellion part 4: The reunification of Xinjiang Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Do you remember Ma Chongying, basically the guy that started most of this madness? Following him getting severely wounded at Liaotun in autumn of 1932, he had withdrawn the majority of his forces to his old domain in northwestern Gansu. He set up a HQ at Anxi and through his subordinates began expanding territory and increasing recruitment via conscription. The British missionaries Mildred Cable and Francesca French were living in Tunhuang at the time and wrote extensively about Ma Congying's recruitment efforts “The town was robbed of everything in the nature of food, goods and money ... next to food the most coveted possessions of the oases were the young, vigorous, hardy men ... These were the men whom Ma Chung-ying wanted for gun fodder, and orders were issued to the press-gang to fetch them in from every farm of the neighborhood, and collect them in Tunhuang City. Every day we saw them being rounded up. The ropes which they themselves had twisted from desert grass were used to tie their hands behind their backs, and to noose their necks in a running-knot. Roped together in droves of twenty to thirty, according to the success of the raid, they were brought to town by captors who rode the horses levied from these boys' own stables. Thrust behind the high palings of temple courtyards, the imprisoned youths lined the barriers, looking out for some passers-by who might belong to their own group of farmsteads and would take a report home that son or husband had been captured”. After initial training at Tunhuang, the recruits were taken to Anxi for further training. Cable and French were ordered to Anxi to aid Ma Chongying with his wounds and to  take care of other Tungans who reportedly had been injured by fire arrows during the siege of Kumul Old City. They did a good job as within a short amount of time Ma Chongying was able to ride again.  Back in Xinjiang, following the failed Uyghur led rebellion at Kumul and facing another imminent Tungant invasion in the Turfan area Jin Shujen turned increasingly to the USSR for help. In September of 1931 he bought two biplanes for the Soviets at 40,000 Mexican silver dollars each. The planes came with two Russian pilots and on October 1st, Jin signed a secret trade deal with the USSR allowing 8 Soviet trading agencies to set up shop in Urumqi, Chuguchak, Kashgar, Kulja, Aksu, Kucha, Khotan and Yarkland. Customs duties on Soviets goods were reduced and a new Xinjiang-Soviet telegraph line and radio communications were established. Jin signed these deals illegally without notifying Nanjing and in return received economic and military assistance from the Soviets. In July of 1932 he would receive another 8 aircraft. Yet despite the Soviet assistance, Jin's provincial forces with the exception of Peppengut's White Russian detachment remained ill trained and ill officered. Following the relief of Kumul Old City and Ma Chongyings retreat back to Gansu, Chang Peiyuan, the provincial commander in chief and military governor of Ili went to Urumqi. It appears that Jin did not fully trust Chang Peiyuan, possibly fearing that the victory at Kumul had stirred up dangerous ambitions in Chang. This distrust seemed to be mutual, as Chang, upon receiving orders to transfer to the provincial capital, chose to defy them and returned to Ili in an act bordering on open rebellion. In response, Jin appointed Sheng Shihtsai, Chang's Chief-of-Staff during the Kumul campaign, as the new Provincial Commander-in-Chief. This decision would have significant implications both for Jin's future and for the future of Xinjiang. Sheng Shihtsai was born in 1895 in Liaoning Manchuria. He was the son of a small landowner. In 1917 he traveled to Japan to study political economics at Waseda University and came back to China in 1919 to participate in the May 4th movement. During that time he developed radical and anti-Japanese stances. He then joined the military training school in Guangdong and later enrolled in the northeastern military academy. He entered military service under Guo Songling, haha that old cry baby, who was deputy under Zhang Zuolin. Sheng Shihtsai rose through the ranks becoming a Lt Colonel. In 1924 Guo Songling sponsored Sheng's admission to the Shikan Gakko military academy in Japan. Sheng returned briefly to help Guo Songlings failed coup against Zhang Zuolin, but was able to escape imprisonment with support from Feng Yuxiang and Chiang Kai-Shek. They got him a ticket back to Japan, and he returned to China in 1927 to participate in the northern expedition as a staff officer attached to Chiang Kai-Sheks HQ. After the northern expedition, he was made chief of war operations section of the General staff at Nanjing, but in 1929 resigned as he did not get along with his superiors. After all of this he took an interest in China's border defences. At the time a delegation from Xinjiang visited Nanjing searching for financial aid. Jin Shujen had instructed one of his delegates, Kuang Lu the deputy General secretary of Xinjiang, to find an able bodied officer to help reorganize Xinjiang's military. Kuang Lu fished around and found Sheng who looked like a very promising man. Sheng then traveled via the USSR arriving to Urumqi in the winter of 1929. His initial welcome was a luke warm one as Jin was suspicious of this highly qualified overseas educated man, obviously seeing him as a potential threat. Moreover, Jin's brother Jin Shuxin hated Sheng's appointment because the man outshined him. Despite the jealousy, Jin was basically grasping at straws and needed the help so he made Sheng the chief of staff over the Xinjiang Frontier Army and also the instructor at the provincial military college.  In the words of historian Chan Fooklam “Sheng's appointment was like Jin burying a time bomb under his bed, he had brought upon himself his own doom”. Despite receiving aid from the Soviets and British, Jin's grip over Xinjiang was slipping away. In May of 1932 Ma Chongying had dispatched Ma Shuming to take over the Tungan operation against Turfan. As we talked about, Ma Fuming, leading the provincial forces at Turfan simply defected. Also at this time Chang Peiyuan's insubordination was breaking out, easing the way for Sheng to be promoted to commander in chief. Sheng was directing an unsuccessful campaign against Uyghur insurgents at Karlik Tagh. Following news of Ma Fumings defection and the Tungan capture of Turfan, Sheng advanced west from Kumul to try and prevent the combined Muslim forces from marching upon Urumqi. After a bloody two day battle he recaptured Turfan, but this has little effect over Ma Shuming who had already moved his HQ to Kara Shahr.  During mid-winter, Ma Shuming's Tungan cavalry and Ma Fumings Turkic insurgents began an advance to Urumqi. At some point a force of provincial troops sent to Urumqi by Jin, specifically to guard the Dawan Cheng Pass were ambushed and annihilated by the Tungans. Meanwhile full scale rebellions had broken out at Kucha led by Temur and at Khotan led by the Amirs. To this Jin responded by expanding Pappenguts White Russian detachment from its original strength of 250 to 1500 men. The White Russians, most of whom came from Ili Valley, had literally no choice but to enlist. Alongside threatening any White Russians with deportation to the USSR, Jin also arrested many Russian women to compel their husbands to enlist. By early January of 1933, Ma Shumings Tungans had crossed the Dawan Cheng and were now operating at will in the Chaiwupao corridor, to the immediate south of the capital. Wu Aichen the political envoy on behalf of Nanjing reported on January 29th, that the city gates were suddenly closed and a month of food shortages and communal tensions rose. Wu Aichen would witness the brutality of the war. In his reports, the Tungans advanced towards the city during the night, seizing the Great West Bridge after a heavy fight. The Provincial commander defending the city only had 700 troops under him and if it was not for 300 White Russian troops suddenly arriving, the city most likely would have fallen then. Wu Aichen described the White Russian troops as superb fighters, albeit savagely drunk as they drove back the Tungan and Uyghurs during two days of hand to hand combat. Meanwhile Tungans had captured the radio station and a nearby height called Devil's Hill which overlooked the Urumqi suburbs. The Chinese officials feared letting in any more Muslim civilians to the Old City, thus they kept the city gates causing large numbers of refugees from the suburbs to gather outside the walls. This was particularly evident at the west gate which became the focal point of the fighting. Wu Aichen witnessed much of it and had this to say. “In times of peace this street was one of the most prosperous in the city, but now it was crowded With innocent fugitives, whose plight was terrible indeed. There was was worse to come, however, for now the advancing rebels came to this quarter and seizing the houses made loop-holes in the walls. In the flat roofs they set up machine-gun posts which could enfilade Government positions on either side of them. I could see for myself that the situation was desperate and that our troops would be pinned against the walls. General Pai, who was in command, did not hesitate. He gave the order that the street of the small religion should be set on fire. Then followed a scene so frightful that the reader's imagination must suffice. As the flames swept down the long lane of wooden structures they became an inferno of horror, for the roar of the conflagration was added to the rattle of gunfire, .and the hideous shrieks of those who were trapped. The rebels sought safety in flight, and as they crossed the open were machine-gunned from the Red Mountain; but the fugitives had nowhere to fly to and perished to the last man, woman and child. Nevertheless the city was saved, and when at last the flames died down the approach to the West Bridge was strewn with the bodies of our assailants. On the evening of the second day I had completed ten thousand words of copying. I asked how many were dead. I was told at least two thousand. Once again I returned to my task, reflecting that a human life had been taken at every fifth word”. Following the defeat, the Muslim forces had to pull back from the West Gate area, however, they still held control over the West Bridge, a mere half mile northwest. This gave them a great launchpad for night raids and many would be killed trying to scale the walls under the mouths of guns. The White Russian troops emerged as the backbone of the defenses, holding the city walls and making occasional sorties. Urumqi would have fallen if it was not for Sheng Shihtsai who came to her aid with his troops from Turfan. Upon seeing his relief forces the Muslim insurgents broke off their attack and withdrew into the surrounding countryside. With winter coming to an end, with fear of a cholera outbreak looming the Chinese went to work burying the dead. Wu Aichen was one of those who helped with the burials and wrote a horrifying description about the conditions of the city. Over 1000 bodies were buried in a single mass grave within the suburbs and the final death toll was estimated to exceed 6000. Following the relief of Urumqi, the Muslim insurgents seized all they could in the countryside such as Dawan Cheng, the districts of Fukang and parts of Santopao where an estimated 900 Han Chinese were killed. The insurgents burned the stocks of rice that usually fed the capital and on March 1st a detachment of 100 provincial troops were ambushed and annihilated at Chitaowan. The situation throughout the province deteriorated; to the south Ma Shaowu had isolated Kashgar and in the north a Kazakh rebellion broke out in the Sahara Sume region under Sharif Khan. The Kazakh uprising convinced the Soviets that Jin Sujen was going to inevitably lose Xinjiang. They acted without any notice to Nanjing by dispatching forces to help hold up Urumqi. Fate would have it, 2000 battle hardened Chinese troops had recently been driven over the Heilongjiang border into Siberia by the Japanese during the invasion of Manchuria. So Stalin signed off on sending them over the trans-siberian and Turk-sib railways to the Xinjiang frontier of Chuguchak. This force designated the Northeast National Salvation Army consisted of regular soldiers who were well trained and held good morale. They arrived to Urumqi on March 27th of 1933, substantially bolstering the provincial military, more particularly that of the new Provincial commander in chief, Sheng Shihtsai who just so happened to also be a Manchurian.  Sheng led the new forces to push back the invading Tungans of Ma Shuming who was forced over the Dawan Cheng back to his HQ at Kara Shahr. The Uyghur insurgents were demoralized and Khoja Niyas Hajji who controlled a belt around the Xinjiang-Gansu frontier began begining for assistance from Ma Chongying. Meanwhile Jin basically was undermined by Sheng and was seeing further unrest in Urumqi. The White Russians who had bore the brunt of the fighting to defend Urumqi were royally pissed off as they had not all been paid and were provided the worst horses and ammunition of all the defenders. Moreover Jin's popularity with all nationalities, even Han Chinese had fallen dramatically because his brother Jin Shuxin had reportedly exorted the granaries during the siege. Following the relief of Urumqi, Pappengut and the other White Russians approached the leaders of the northeast national salvation army with grievances against Jin Shujen and were given assurances of support to mount a coup against him. On April 12th, around 400 White Russians stormed the capital with 200 of them seizing the city gates and yamen. Jin managed to escape over the city walls and fled to the USSR via Chuguchak. From there he returned to China via the Turk-Sib and Trans-Siberian. Meanwhile his younger brother Jin Shuxin was captured and executed. Sheng Shihtsai was encamped at Uruba at the time of the coup and insisted in his future memoirs he had nothing to do with the coup and that it was all the USSR's doing. Regardless after the coup Sheng was urged to go to Urumqi where negotiations began with Liu Wenlung who was appointed Provincial Chairman while Sheng was made Tupan or “border defense commissioner”. Ie; Sheng was made the de facto ruler of Xinjiang.  After Ma Shumings failure to take Urumqi and Khoja Niyas Hajji's pleas for help, Ma Chongying determined to reenter the fray in person. Despite the setbacks, the Tungans had crossed the Dawan Cheng and nearly taken the capital, coupled with the seizure of Kashgar, Ma Chongying most likely believed there was still a great chance to take it all. He had spent 18 months rebuilding his army and better yet, because of the USSR's illegal move to save Urumqi, Nanjing officially recognizing his Tungan forces as the 36th division of the NRA. Ma Chongying moved his HQ from Anxi to Suzhou and really improved his military. A German engineer named Vasel working with him described him as a man who admired Napoleon, Bismarck and Hindenburg and who “was frequently to be seen running at the head of his troops during training, even in sub-zero temperature. Military training was pursued with a spartan rigour, pushed to the verge of utter ruthlessness. Desertion was punishable by death, and on one occasion I saw Ma personally behead five such offenders. In one of those sudden fits of exuberance that were typical of him, snatching up casually some hand grenades, which he had made himself, and hurling them, one by one, against the lofty clay-coloured walls of the city. And then he laughed heartily when he saw his men fling themselves flat on the ground as splinters of steel hurtled in all directions. He scorned to seek safety by throwing himself on the ground, and was quite delighted when he saw that I too did not seek cover”. During spring of 1933, Ma Chongying prepared to reinvade Xinjiang. A Swedish man named Bexeill was working along the Gansu-Qinghai border and noted Ma Chongying heavily taxed his territory in northwestern Gansu to the limits of the peasants endurance. He apparently even sent troops into Qinghai to illegally tax them. By May of 1933 his army departed Suhou for Yumen and Vasel gives us this description of them. “A dark mass of human beings, camels and oxen, was pouring out of the city gate towards the west amid clouds of dust. There were hundreds of heavily-laden camels, the bells on their necks clanging monotonously, their drivers easily discernible by their gaudy headgear. In the rear followed high-wheeled ox-carts, flanked on either side by infantry. Behind them again came a company of cavalry, which presently galloped past the lumbering camels and oxen along the track through the desert ... and now I had an opportunity of seeing at close range General Ma's famous cavalry riding past me and keeping its post at the head of the marching columns. This was the famous white cavalry regiment of which General Ma was especially proud. The broad iron swords of the dragoons clanked as they rode along on their magnificent white horses, while on their shoulders they carried carbines of the most varied and antiquated patterns. Next came the brown regiment, while in the rear followed the black regiment, comprising some two thousand horsemen. A short distance behind the cavalry came the infantry - regiment after regiment, headed by the Chinese (Kuomintang) standard. On they swept, platoon after platoon, followed by their officers, with their mausers at the ready. The columns strode along, keeping perfect time with their shrill, high-pitched, mournful, Asiatic marching songs. Sandwiched between some of these trained and trustworthy soldiers I saw large drafts of recruits who had been compelled to join General Ma's forces. These raw levies were constantly kept under very close observation'. On Top of Ma Chongyings new Tungan army, young Uyghurs were also conscripted into his ranks. 2500 Tungans under the command of his younger brother Ma Chongjie captured Kumul in May with little opposition. This was because the area was dominated by Ma Chongyings ally Khoja Niyas Hajji. After this Ma Chongjie issued bilingual proclamations to the people of Kumul, stating they were free of Jin Shujen's tyranny, who at the time was in the USSR. Meanwhile Sheng hurriedly prepared a force of 5000 to meet the invaders near Urumqi. Ma Chongying advanced upon Qiqiaoqing unopposed, getting even further west than his first invasion of 1931. Instead of taking the main road to Turgan, the Tungans crossed the narrow defile between Barkul Tagh and Bogdo Ula to hit the garrison town of Kitai. The first major battle broke out near Mulei, due east of Kitai on May 15th. Two days later a mixed force of 4000 Tungans and Turkic Muslims attacked Kitai led by Ma Chongjie. On May 26th Sheng sortied from Urumqi at the head of 5000 men, 1000 of whom were White Russians. Sheng planned to hold Santai, the halfway point between Urumqi and Kitai. Sheng's men attacked the invaders around Kitai, but lost the battle for the city, though Ma Chongjie was killed in battle. Sheng then retreated back to Urumqi by June 1st. Things looked dire for Sheng, he was unsure how Nanjing would react to the coup against Jin Shujen, his position was threatened to the east by Ma Chongying now headquartered at Kitai and to the west by Chang Peiyuan the military governor of Ili whom he suspected was not loyal to Urumqi and in league with the Tungans. Ma Chongying was now within striking distance of Urumqi, when he suddenly halted his attack and sent a telegram with terms. It turns out Ma Chongying had no idea Jin Shujen had been overthrown, so he was unsure how to proceed. This bought Sheng more time to raise defenses, sending the White Russians to hold Fukang as he dispatched Wu Aichen on a peace mission to Kitai. Wu Aichen's mission failed, so Sheng went to Fukang to take personal command of the army and to meet Ma Chongying around the hamlet of Zuniquan. During the battle of mid June, the provincial forces managed to gain the upper hand due to severe weather conditions for which the lightly clothed Tungans were ill prepared for. The Uyghurs forces of Khoja Niyas Hajji also took no part in the fighting despite being in the immediate area. The Tungans were defeated at Zuniquan, but not routed. Ma Chongyings men managed to retreat in well order to Qiqiaoqing and from there advanced to Turfan joined Tungan forces under Ma Shuming. Combined the Tungans marched to Dawan Cheng. At the same time a Pacification Commissioner, Huang Musung was sent by Nanjing to Urumqi. His mission was to establish peace between the provincial forces and Ma Chongying, both of whom claimed loyalty to Nanjing. Sheng was suspicious of Huang Musung and felt Nanjing might be simply backing the Tungans. Thus Sheng had Huang Musung placed under house arrest. Then Sheng accused three Xinjiang officials of plotting with Huang Musung, Chang Peiyuan and Ma Chongying to overthrow him and had them all executed via a firing squad. Thus Sheng clearly had distanced himself from Nanjing and turned 100% to the USSR for help. During early Autumn Ma Chongying was still in Turfan reorganizing the forces while Sheng was consolidating his position in Urumqi and quelling the Kazakh rebellion.  Meanwhile Khoja Niyas Hajji was growing uneasy with his alliance to Ma Chongying and began to open up secret negotiations with Sheng and soon was appointed Chief Defense commissioner for Southern Xinjiang. He then took his Uyghurs across the Dawan Cheng and occupied Toksun only to be surprise attacked and decisively defeated by Tungans under Ma Shuming. By late July Khoja Niyas Hajji took his battered survivors and fled for Kucha. At this point Huang Musung managed to secure his release from house arrest by telegramming Nanjing the recommendation that Sheng Shihtsai and Liu Wenlung be confirmed in their posts as the chief military and civil authorities over Xinjiang. Nanjing had really no options other than to comply.  On September 2nd Lo Wenkan, the foreign minister of Nanjing, came to Urumqi and officially confirmed Sheng into office and then mediated between Sheng and Ma Chongying. To compensate Ma Chongying he was offered the post of Garrison Commander of Eastern Xinjiang which he accepted, thus gaining control over Kumul, Barkul and part of Turfan. After Lo Wenkan departed in early October, suddenly Sheng announced the discovery of a new plot against him. He accused Liu Wenlung of conspiring with Ma Chongying, Chang Peiyuan and Lo Wenkan to overthrow him. Liu Wenlung was forced to resign and was replaced as the provincial chairman by Zhu Juixi. Sheng then prepared a final hammer blow against Ma Chongying. However Ma Chongying had secretly been working with Ma Shuming to deliver a lighting stroke against Urumqi which came in December of 1933. Tungan forces passed Dawan Cheng and began attacking the capital. Likewise in response to the constant accusations, Chang Peiyuan finally threw his support to the Tungans. He led his troops across the Talki Pass into Zungharia and attacked the Provincial forces stationed at Wusu. Meanwhile encouraged by the advance of the Gansu Tungans, the indigenous Tungans of Zungharia rose en masse to Ma Chongyings banner. In late december a detachment of the 36th NRA led by Ma Shuming bypassed Urumqi and attacked Chuguchak. Vasel happened to witness this and described the battle as such “The sun's rays, by this time, were shining obliquely across the street and showed us the Tungan army entering the town ... Stirrup to stirrup, the young regular soldiers in their smart uniforms looked a well-disciplined, trim and efficient force. r recognised one of their officers, Ma Shih-ming, the Commander-in-Chief's adjutant, who had frequently been my guest in Soochow. These regular soldiers rode past on beautiful horses, while huge red flags floated in the breeze above their heads, bearing the character 'Ma' in black letters on a white ground. At a short distance followed a horde that was tolerably well equipped . . . I saw needle-guns, blunderbusses and muzzle-loaders ... In their rear dense clouds of dust, which shut out the light, billowed onward, and then came the infantry. . . men with wild eyes and matted hair. . . outlaws who had nothing to lose and everything to gain from the upheaval that was going on. After the infantry followed a huge horde of camels, with their rhythmical swaying gait, laden with produce and goods of every conceivable type ... the breath came from their mouths like smoke - their necks were craned forward, and their heads kept bobbing up and down.”With the Tungans taking Zunghaira, the Khotan Amirs running amok in the south and Chang Peiyuan joining the fray, Sheng's position at Urumqi was hopeless. While Ma Chongying and Sheng Shihtsai continued their struggle in the north, in the south Muhammad Amin Bughra woo'd Khoja Niyas Hajji to become president of a new secessionist Islamic state. Thus was born the Turkic Islamic Republic of Eastern Turkestan ie TIRET. While Khoja Niyas Kajji was the quote president, this was simply symbolic, the real leadership remained with the Amirs. Amir Abdulah retained control over Yarkland, Amir Nur Ahmad Jan over Yangi Hissar and Kashgar and Bughra over Khotan. Shari a law was implemented, a national flag with a white star and crescent over a blue ground was made and the new state sought aid and recognition from Britain. But the TIRET would never receive said recognition or aid, for Britain respected Nanjing's government as the sole authority in Xinjiang. TIRET turned next to Turkey, but found no real help. Then they turned to Afghanistan who likewise could not help them. TIRET was doomed from the very beginning. Meanwhile the battles raged between Sheng and Ma Chongying. Sheng knew Nanjing would not assist him so he turned to the USSR. Sheng dispatched diplomats Chen Teli and Yaoxiong to Moscow pleading for assistance. The Soviets were sympathetic and quite concerned with events such as the rise of TIRET and the possibility of Ma Chongying capturing Urumqi as they suspected him and TIRET to have ties to the Japanese. Weary of Germany and Japan, the USSR took up a policy of curbing any influence from either, especially in her Central Asian frontiers. The Soviets sent this warning to Nanjing “'We do not mind if you Chinese develop [Eastern] Turkestan. But if you permit [Eastern] Turkestan to become a second Manchuria, we must act to protect ourselves. '” Thus in late 1933, following pleas for help from Sheng Shihtsai, the Soviets chose to intervene on behalf of Sheng, whom was known to be a loose cannon and unreliable, but atleast was anti-Japanese. The USSR appointed Apresoff as the new consul-general at Urumqi and upon his arrival Sheng conducted a purge. Officers from the Northeast National Salvation army and White Russian volunteers were arrested and shot, including Pappengut. The White Russians units were reorganized under the command of new Soviet officers. Sheng signed a secret deal with the USSR to allow them to build a railway from Sergiopol, through Chuguchak to Urumqi. Sheng also announced 6 new principles going forward (I) anti-imperialism, (2) kinship to Sovietism, (3) racial or national equality, (4) 'clean' government, (5) peace, and (6) reconstruction.  The Soviets were pleased and after receiving approval from Nanjing dispatched two brigades, numbered some 7000 men supported by tanks, artillery and aircraft against the insurgent positions at Kulja and Chuguchak. The Soviets had orders to “clear the roads and liquidate the rebellion”. They rapidly overwhelmed the forces of Chang Peiyuan who committed suicide in shame. The Tungans of Ma Shuming put up a better fight but were dislodged from the Chuguchak area. According to Vasel, the Tungans managed to beat back some attacks during 30 days of battle. In one instance the Tungans foiled a Soviet pincer attack by “crawling through the snow, camouflaged by reversed sheepskins, and storming, from a very short distance, Soviet machine-gun posts whilst wielding the characteristic curved sword of Islam”. The main battle broke out on the frost-bound banks of the Tutun River, 30 miles northwest of Urumqi. According to The Times correspondent Peter Fleming , “the Battle of the Tutun River 'raged for several days; but the Tungans' unskilled ferocity was no match for a mechanised foe, and the troops ... were badly demoralised by gas bombs dropped by the Soviet airmen”.  Both the Soviets and Tungans took heavy casualties, but ultimately the Soviets won, forcing Ma Chongying to retreat from Urumqi to the Dawan Cheng, pursued by a mixed force of Soviets, White Russians and Chinese. The Tungans attempted to make a stand at Dawan Cheng, but according to Vasel “a detachment of Soviet troops supported by armoured cars was attacked by a force of some 500 Tungans. After savage hand-to-hand fighting the Soviet forces were driven back, and their armoured cars were rolled off the mountainside by the victorious Tungans. At this juncture, by a strange twist of fate, the surviving Soviet troops were relieved by a force of White Russian 'volunteers', and Ma Chung-ying was forced to continue his retreat through Toksun to Korla”. Meanwhile in Southern Xinjiang, the Soviets tried to break the TIRET. A Soviet backed force of irregulars known as the “Tortunjis” was set up at Ulug Chat, led by Yusuf Jan. The Soviets also negotiated secretly with Khoja Niyas Hajji who despite being the president of the TIRET had taken all of his forces to Aksu. As a result Khoja Niyas Hajji received Soviet arms in return for turning against his anti-soviet colleagues. Yet despite Soviet support, Khoja Niyas Hajji's Uyghur forces were decisively defeated by 800 Tungans under Ma Chongying. Khoja Niyas Hajji had to abandon his HQ at Aksu fleeing for Kashgar with 1500 men on January 13th of 1934. The Tungans soon besieged Kashgar New City forcing Khoja Niyas Hajji and local forces under Sabit Damullah to withdrew towards Yangi-Hissar, then held by Nur Ahmad Jan. Within 24 hours the Tungan advance guard led by Ma Fuyuan entered Kashgar meeting little resistance. According to British Consulate General Thomson-Glover “'some 800 Tungans and 1,200 conscripts caused nearly 10,000 rebel troops to flee from Kashgar'” To make thing more complicated at this time Ma Shaowu assumed senior military and civil control on behalf of Nanjing and at the request of Ma Chanzeng and Ma Fuyuan. Thus the capital of TIRET was recaptured for Nanjing, but not by their approved forces under Sheng, but of those under Ma Chongying. Following the fall of Kashgar, TIRET moved its administration to Yangi-Hissar. Meanwhile Khoja Niyas Hajji fled to Irkeshtam on the Soviet border and there signed a treaty with the USSR to dissolve the TIRET and relinquished his forces to be used by the Xinjiang provincial authorities against the Tungans and Khotan Amirs. For this he was rewarded Civil Governor for life over Xinjiang with Sheng Shihtsai retaining military governorship. On February 14th, the Khotanlik forces tried but failed to recapture Kashgar. In response for two days the Tungans systematically looted Kashgar old city while they massacred nearly 2000 of its citizenry. Then Ma Chanzeng and Ma Fuyuan advanced to Yangi-Hissar where on March 28th looted its old city and killed everyone they got their hands on. In the face of the Tungan onslaught, Amir Nur Ahmad Jan fled into Yangi Hissar New City and Sabit Damullah fled for Yarkland. Nur Ahmad Jan led a fierce resistance at the New City until April 2nd when Amir Abdullah arrived from Yarkland with several thousand troops. However caught out in the open, Abdullah's men were obliterated by the Tungans and Abdullah was cut down and his severed head was sent to Kashgar to be exhibited outside the Id-gah Mosque. Yangi-Hissar New City continued to resist, “wielding only rifles and conserving their scanty ammunition and rolling back the attackers scaling the walls by means of large stones and tree trunks”. The Tungans took New City on April 12th, putting 500 of its defenders and Nur Ahmad Jan to the sword. Meanwhile the administration of TIRET received word of Khoja Niyas Hajji's deal with the Soviets and refused to dissolve. Thus Khoja Niyas Hajji went to Yarkland to try and convince Amir Muhammad Amin Bughra to dissolve the TIRET. He arrived there in Mid April, only a few days before the Tungas would. Bughra fled towards Khotan as Khoja Niyas Hajji looted Yarkland taking Sabit Damullah prisoner and advanced to Aksu. The Tungans arrived at Yarkland on the 20th and immediately pursued Khoja Niyas Hajji. Khoja Niyas Hajji managed to get to Aksu where he handed over Sabit Damullah who was promptly hung. Meanwhile Ma Chongying arrived at Kashgar with 10,000 men on April 6th where he denounced Sheng Shihtsai as a Soviet Puppet and stressed loyalty to Nanjing to its population. Other Tungan forces captured Sarikol and together marched upon Khotan. Khotan was taken on June 12th without a fight and unlike at Kashgar and Yangi-Hissar, the Tungans did not loot, but instead hunted down Muhammad Amin Bughra who had escaped with 3000 troops towards Keriya. Bughra managed to give them all the slip and fled with several ponies carrying hold to Ladakh in British India where he received permission to travel to Srinagar. Thus ended the TIRET experiment as Ma Chongying claimed he had recaptured southern Xinjiang for Nanjing. Ma Chongying then met with Thomson Glover “that he had come to Kashgar 'to try and save south Sinkiang from Russian influence', and continued to stress his loyalty to Nanjing”.  Meanwhile Ma Chongying set up a defensive line at Maral Bashi and Fayzabad with his brother in law, Ma Hushan in command. During May and June of 1934 Ma Chongying tried to gain sympathy from the British for his cause, but they refused to get involved. In a surprising turn of events, as told to us by Thomson Glover “Ma Chung-ying left Kashgar for Irkeshtam early on 7th July with three or four of his officers. . . and an escort of some 50 Tungans and one or more members of the USSR Consulate or Trade Agency. Arrived near the border to Russia the escort were met by Russian or Russian-employed troops. The Tungan escort dispersed or handed over their arms to some of Khoja Niyas' levies, and Ma Chung-ying disappeared into Russia”. Why the courageous Tungan threw in the towel is a mystery. He had not yet been deceive beaten, he could have taken his Tungan force and held out for 3 years before returning back to Gansu. Regardless the Soviets had offered him sanctuary and he just took it. His fate is a complete mystery, some say he was killed by the Soviets, some say he rotted in a dungeon, that he lived a life of luxury as a Soviet guest, and one claim is that in 1938, when Sheng Shihtsai visited Moscow, Stalin had him executed as a gift. Ma Chongyings command passed to Ma Hushan who set up a HQ at Khotan and carved out a sphere of influence extending from Karghalik to CHarkhlik. The provincial forces did nothing to stop him, and instead signed a truce, ending the wars with the Tungans. Sheng Shihtsai had won, he now held absolute power over Xinjiang, though as we will see much later on, Xinjiang was certainly not done seeing battles. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Thus in the end, after all of these different groups of people formed uprisings, betrayed one another and fought this large game of thrones for Xinjiang, it was Sheng Shihtsai who prevailed above all. Xinjiang was by no means stable and would continue to see chaos well into WW2 however.   

National Sister Day never ends in Equestria as the gang is joined by Korla's partner Lilith! This week, we get really in the weeds about pissbending, Rarity invents Rainbow Capitalism, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hunts a different kind of bear. Find Lilith! Master Duel! Player ID: 768-908-159 Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci & https://bsky.app/profile/gigipup.bsky.social Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK & https://bsky.app/profile/poobisok.bsky.social Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob & https://bsky.app/profile/RubikScoob.bsky.social Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/Ciaranxo Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

The gang is back to claim territory for Halloween in the War on Christmas! We also pay our pet rent, Luna bites a butt, and Pinkie Pie is affected by the chicken suit from Tak and the Power of Juju. Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci & https://bsky.app/profile/gigipup.bsky.social Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK & https://bsky.app/profile/poobisok.bsky.social Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob & https://bsky.app/profile/RubikScoob.bsky.social Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/Ciaranxo Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

This week we return to our pony friends with Minneapolis musician marvel Anita Velveeta! And what an episode to initiate her to the show with as the gang learns big Legoland news, Applejack gets trench foot, and Twilight Sparkle disassociates on a park bench in Ponyville. Find Anita Velveeta on: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/anita.velveeta/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/anita_velveeta Bandcamp - https://anitavelveeta.bandcamp.com/ Find us on: Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci & https://bsky.app/profile/gigipup.bsky.social Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK & https://bsky.app/profile/poobisok.bsky.social Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob & https://bsky.app/profile/RubikScoob.bsky.social Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/Ciaranxo Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

With Discord defeated, the gang pivots to the iconic nature documentary Meerkat Manor! On National Sister Day! This week Gigi gets bullied even more than usual, Shakespeare writes himself into the play, and Zaphod rubs his balls on absolutely everything. Website - www.smallgayhorse.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Listen to Gigi on the Radio Free Tote Bag patreon! https://www.patreon.com/rftb Listen to Korla (and recurring guest Audrey!) on The Worst Of All Possible Worlds patreon! https://www.patreon.com/WorstOfAll Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci & https://bsky.app/profile/gigipup.bsky.social Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK & https://bsky.app/profile/poobisok.bsky.social Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob & https://bsky.app/profile/RubikScoob.bsky.social Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/Ciaranxo Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

Discord! We're coming after you, to recap the first episode of gen four season two! This time the gang puts Gigi on blast, Fluttershy attempts to top, and Big McIntosh gets put on the Puppygirl Pipeline. Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Listen to Gigi on the Radio Free Tote Bag patreon! https://www.patreon.com/rftb Listen to Korla (and recurring guest Audrey!) on The Worst Of All Possible Worlds patreon! https://www.patreon.com/WorstOfAll Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci & https://bsky.app/profile/gigipup.bsky.social Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK & https://bsky.app/profile/poobisok.bsky.social Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob & https://bsky.app/profile/RubikScoob.bsky.social Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/Ciaranxo Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall Audrey and Korla (Data Transfer) take the lads on a trip to the post-cyberpocalypse as they cover Tales of Game's infamous free-to-play sequel to a certain Michael Jordan/Looney Tunes mashup: Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden. Topics include the game's overt racism, forum culture in the mid-2000s, and the lessons to be learned from a game where Charles Barkley destroys half of New York with a Chaos Dunk. LIVE SHOW TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW Data Transfer: A watch-along series for the Digimon franchise, where two transfemme dorks make their way through every season of Digimon anime that exists. Hosts Audrey and Korla discuss each episode with an intensely queer lens and share their experiences with Digimon throughout their lives along the way. Website // Spotify // Apple Podcasts Post Ponies: Episode recaps of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, hoping to glean something about the rise of fascism in America and around the world. Somehow. Hosted by four trans girls who can not be trusted with the aux. It will not be safe for work. Website // Spotify // Apple Podcasts Radio Free Tote Bag: A weekly relationship advice podcast hosted by Audrey and Donovan. Patreon // Spotify // Apple Podcasts // Twitter // Instagram Media Referenced in this Episode: Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden. Tales of Game's. 2008. GZ Post on SA forums about the State of Barkley 2 Shaq mocks Charles Barkley for his role in Space Jam - Inside the NBA Barkley 2 - an RPG Sequel to Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden The future of Barkley 2 Update 35: Information about Barkley 2 Updates - why you haven't heard from us and why the game isn't dead yet. · Barkley 2 - an RPG Sequel to Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com Commercial: “A Reading of The Navy Seal Copypasta”

The gang is back after a long vacation to start season 2 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic! This episode we talk about the logistics of Princess Celestia humping a statue, Rainbow Dash gets her idle animation going, and we somehow avoid saying "back in the saddle" for the whole episode. Website - www.smallgayhorse.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci & https://bsky.app/profile/gigipup.bsky.social Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK & https://bsky.app/profile/poobisok.bsky.social Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob & https://bsky.app/profile/RubikScoob.bsky.social Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/Ciaranxo Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

The gang is back to finish up season one! This episode we consider sweaty Pinkie Pie, indulge in Horse Water, and visit The Fucked Up World of Scary Richard. Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci & https://bsky.app/profile/gigipup.bsky.social Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK & https://bsky.app/profile/poobisok.bsky.social Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob & https://bsky.app/profile/RubikScoob.bsky.social Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/Ciaranxo Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

Balancing Technology and Human Support in CX Shep Hyken interviews Venk Korla, President and CEO of HGS Digital. He talks about the integration of AI technology in customer support to create personalized, empathetic experiences.   This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep  Hyken answers the following questions and more:   How is artificial intelligence used to improve customer interactions in contact centers? What are the challenges in finding the right balance between technology and human support in customer experiences? What frustrations do customers face when dealing with customer service, and how can AI address them? How can AI be used to personalize and contextualize customer experiences in contact centers? What tools can be provided to improve employee satisfaction and performance in customer service?  Top Takeaways:     ·Balancing technology and human support is essential, as both play a role in customer satisfaction. When creating a positive customer experience, understanding the value of personalization and empathy is crucial. Companies can build strong connections and foster loyalty by tailoring interactions to individual customers and showing genuine care and understanding. ·Companies can now use  AI to transcribe and analyze customer service calls to gain valuable insights into customer interactions and enhance the quality of support that they provide. AI technology has the potential to make customer interactions more transparent and inclusive for both customers and support agents.  ·Investing in employee satisfaction and providing the right tools for job performance is essential for creating a positive customer experience. Employees who feel supported and equipped to handle their roles effectively are better positioned to deliver exceptional service. ·When offering self-service options, provide clear, frustration-free instructions to empower customers to resolve their own issues. Venk brought up a concept known as the Ikea Effect. Similar to the enjoyment and fulfilling experience Ikea customers have assembling furniture on their own, customers become fulfilled and even elated when they solve problems without having to call customer support.  ·While AI and technology can streamline interactions and provide insights, the human touch, empathy, and personalized support remain essential in creating meaningful customer connections. Integrating technology with human support can enhance the overall customer experience. ·Plus, Shep and Venk discuss findings from the CX Buyers' Insights Report, revealing what CX decision-makers will invest in and focus on for 2024 and beyond. Tune in! Quote:  "Omnichannel traditionally means that a brand can serve its customers in different channels. Today, the goal is to have continuity of service because customers go from channel to channel interacting with the brand." About: Venk Korla is the President and CEO of HGS Digital. He has helped Global 1000 companies, healthcare institutions, universities, and non-profit organizations create digital strategies and solutions. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're back! And we ponder transgender children's book characters, Ruby makes another all timer word chain, and Rainbow Dash gets goaded into violence by rocks. Support Korla and Lexie's GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci & https://bsky.app/profile/gigipup.bsky.social Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK & https://bsky.app/profile/poobisok.bsky.social Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob & https://bsky.app/profile/RubikScoob.bsky.social Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/Ciaranxo Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

We're back for what was supposed to be a quick little thing and turned into an hour plus long episode! Lmao! Korla shares her presents, Princess Celestia goes balls deep, and we finally put a Pizza Hut in the garage. KroboProductions - The Fesh Pince of Blair https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeIkk6Yo0s8 Vlue! https://twitter.com/oneDumbMouse https://bsky.app/profile/onedumbmouse.bsky.social https://twitter.com/vluesclues Support Korla and Lexie's GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com Here's the Korla image discussed in the episode! VERY NSFW! https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/f/ff139825-a810-4613-88f7-7668b26684c9/UyA2wysR.png

After various life circumstances the gang is back at it again! This time we reveal the cis guys we'd let hit, Gigi almost falls down the naked brothers band rabbit hole, and Spike recruits a mice-is actor. Support Korla and Lexie's GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

Wow! Long episode! We had so much to say this week, including but not limited to finding the fourth J. O. Emerald, making a baby tierlist, and whether Naruto or Sasuke would top. Support Korla and Lexie's GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

The ponies gang honours the Little Nicky GBA game as in-show Rainbow Dash makes suspicious cunnilingus noises, the mares invade Celestia's inner sanctum, and they succumb to a super feather event with a phoenix that has bird fl-uhh covid. Support Korla and Lexie's GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

We're rollin to the wild wild west everypony! And in the spirit we've recruited our friend Shannon to be Scab Ocky and talk about a... well you'll see. This week the Mane 6 manifest despony, the gang gets kinda jealous of a tree, and Pinkie Pie performs a song and dance so bad it threatens to set back indigenous relations a century. Shannon! - https://bsky.app/profile/metadatashannon.bsky.social This episode was edited by previous guest Simon! - https://bsky.app/profile/mythros.bsky.social Support Korla and Lexie's GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

This week the gang raps about our therapy, Korla shares the most quintessential Korla experience, and Twilight Sparkle has to regain her abilities as the Dragon of Dojima. Support Korla and Lexie's GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

This week the gang fail to remember the names of multiple celebrities, Twilight Sparkle does unicorn Sharingan, and Rarity gets really racist for no reason. Support Korla and Lexie's GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

This week is somehow our horniest and most edited episode yet as the gang decide Cheerilee is racist, Twilight drops the title, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders make Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. Minneapolis GoFundMe supporting victims in this past weekend's horrific shooting: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-victims-of-nudieland-shooting-in-mpls Support Korla and Lexie's GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

This week the gang brave the heat to talk about Summer Blankie Time and child crimes while the Cutie Mark Crusaders do surgery on a table. Support Korla and Lexie's GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci & https://bsky.app/profile/gigipup.bsky.social Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK & https://bsky.app/profile/poobisok.bsky.social Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob & https://bsky.app/profile/RubikScoob.bsky.social Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com PS: Check out Korla's tattoo on our website! https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/f/ff139825-a810-4613-88f7-7668b26684c9/AVcVaqga.png

This week we have Simon from Gohan or Go Home on to make a trend out of doing pronoun reveals and girlfriend updates! Also the gang visit the snowflake factory, lick a foot for hours, and watch Rarity go into the Olympics because she's so pretty. Find Simon! Gohan or Go Home on Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/gohanorgohomepodcast Gohan or Go Home on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/gohanorgohome/ Simon on Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/originalmythros Simon on Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/mythros.bsky.social Support Korla and Lexie's GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci & https://bsky.app/profile/gigipup.bsky.social Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK & https://bsky.app/profile/poobisok.bsky.social Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

We read the second half of Megamorphs 2: In the Time of Dinosaurs. In this part, the gang gets involved in a dispute between two warring parties and probably commit a few war crimes. We discuss the logistics of time travel, the Korla, and ways in which the patriarchy has harmed us all. E-mail us: TheYeerkyBoys@gmail.com Follow us: @TheYeerkyBoys on Twitter, @DogtimesMcGee on Twitter, @Quence on Twitter, @JonathanEstis on Threads, www.JonathanEstis.com

This week, the gang moves at a near record pace to ponder smart home-orashi, turn a human into a receipt printer, and see Twilight do Reddit Atheism. Find Audrey on: RFTB - https://rftb.me Data Transfer - https://data-transfer.castos.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/rftbAudrey Support Korla and Lexie's GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

The wettest dry gang in Equestria is back to talk about buttered up girlpeen, sing snippets of songs neurodivergently, and get extremely excited as Rainbow Dash says the line. Support Korla and Lexie's GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minus_marci Korla - https://bsky.app/profile/korla.bsky.social Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

Hoo boy, we have a wild one this week. We've got photographer, magician, and Korla's local partner Lexie on to join us for a talk about Snopes for Slurs, lots of mysterious inhaling, and Applejack and Rainbow Dash being gay in the style of Ancient Greece. Find Lexie! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexiegphotos/ Support Korla and Lexie's GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minusmarci Korla - https://twitter.com/korlaneumono Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

This week we have Justin from librarypunk on to talk about how strong the pony mouth game must be, and bind a powerful baby with a weaker name, while Apple Bloom realizes she's in an entirely apple-based family. Find Justin! Twitter - https://twitter.com/LibrarySmaz Podcast - https://librarypunk.gay KORLA AND LEXIE GOFUNDME OH MY GOD HOW DID I NOT MENTION THIS??? Korla and her girlfriend Lexie got scammed out of a bunch of money by someone that claimed to be renting out an apartment. First, last, and deposit! It blows super hard. Any money you can give here is much appreciated. https://www.gofundme.com/f/korla-and-lexies-housing-crisis Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minusmarci (AND FIND ME AT ANTHROCON 2023!!!) Korla - https://twitter.com/korlaneumono Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

Wowowow! This week we have on the delightful Leslie from premier Buffy The Vampire Slayer recap podcast Fangs for the Memories! Also we discuss anti-static dental dams, we set up a casino on a raindrop, and Twilight gets stung and stunk owie stinky. Leslie! Twitter - https://twitter.com/lesliejrising Fangs for the Memories - https://fangs.zone Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minusmarci Korla - https://twitter.com/korlaneumono Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

This week we have our good friend Simon from "Gohan or Go Home" to discuss biological butt tattoos and the Friendship Chūnin Exams while Fluttershy causes an ecological disaster. Find Simon on: Twitter - https://twitter.com/originalmythros Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/gohanorgohomepodcast Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/gohanorgohome/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minusmarci Korla - https://twitter.com/korlaneumono Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

Hoo boy, this episode of pony is a rough one. Luckily our hosts remain in good spirits, talking about how the ponies are colonizing nature itself and the logistics of Spike doing a magical political assassination while the Friendship Police conduct a no-knock raid. Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Discord - https://discord.gg/GkaNDPY9fW Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minusmarci Korla - https://twitter.com/korlaneumono Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

This week the gang has a by the book sleepover, in which they do normal girl things like consider the various types of girlstink, remember Larry King, and begin to realize the meteorological realities of Equestria. Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minusmarci Korla - https://twitter.com/korlaneumono Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

We have a guest! It's Audrey from Radio Free Tote Bag and Data Transfer! We get no scope clocked from a decade back, ponder biological advantages in the pony ball bouncing competition, and Fluttershy's butt gets touched. Find Audrey on: Twitter - https://twitter.com/rftbAudrey Radio Free Tote Bag - https://rftb.me And Audrey and Korla on Data Transfer - https://data-transfer.castos.com/ Find us on: Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minusmarci Korla - https://twitter.com/korlaneumono Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

This week, the gang melts at a magician, Ocky tries to get herself canceled, and Twilight conjures a door just to shut it in Spike's face. Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minusmarci Korla - https://twitter.com/korlaneumono Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob We have a Discord now! :3 https://discord.gg/GkaNDPY9fW Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

The gang gets together to watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episode 1, reminisce about their pasts with the series, and remember Tom Hanks dying in 9/11. Find us on: Web - www.smallgayhorse.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minusmarci Korla - https://twitter.com/korlaneumono Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

This week Ponyville sets up a field hospital, Twilight does casual racism, and the gang embarks on the longest cold open known to ponykind. Find us on: Web - www.smallgayhorse.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minusmarci Korla - https://twitter.com/korlaneumono Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

The end of a two parter! The Wonder Swan! Beatboxing! This episode really does have it all. Find us on: Web - www.smallgayhorse.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minusmarci Korla - https://twitter.com/korlaneumono Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

The gang discovers Trans Big McIntosh theory, gets grossed out by ball worm-style tummy rumblies, and Ruby communicates from the .txt zone. Find us on: Web - www.smallgayhorse.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minusmarci Korla - https://twitter.com/korlaneumono Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

This week the gang gets smitten for a griffon, Spike fucks up all the mail, and Pinkie Pie shoots herself in the head with her party cannon. Find us on: Web - www.smallgayhorse.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/postponiespod Email - postponiespod@gmail.com Hosted by: Gigi - https://twitter.com/minusmarci Korla - https://twitter.com/korlaneumono Octavia - https://twitter.com/PoobisOK Ruby - https://twitter.com/RubikScoob Podcast Art by Ciarán Dold - https://twitter.com/CiaranDold Music by anosci - https://twitter.com/anosci4 and https://soundsfromsci.bandcamp.com

Last time we spoke about the modernization efforts of China, Japan and the Hermit Kingdom of Korea. China and Japan undertook very different paths to modernization, and little Korea was stuck in between them. Yet there was even another play joining the mix, the empire of Russia who was threatening all 3 of the Asian nations with her encroachment. The 3 Asian nations attempted to cooperate against the common threat, but Japan and China were growing ever more and more hostile towards another, particularly over the issue of who should influence Korea more. Yet today we are actually doing something a bit different, this will be sort of a side episode, for China had too many events going on during the 19th century to cohesively tell. One story goes often forgotten, yet it encompassed numerous groups, vast amounts of territory and a lot of bloodshed.   #38 This episode is the Dungan Revolt   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.   I am not going to lie, I have no idea where to even start with this one. Originally I wanted to write a single episode, perhaps a two parter, explaining how China and Japan find themselves going to war in the 1890's largely over Korea. Yet the late 19th century is probably one of the most jam packed time periods for Chinese history. So many uprisings, rebellions, wars with foreign states occurs for the Qing dynasty, there's simply no way to tell them all, but here I want to touch upon just a few. Now I keep bringing up but barely talk about, the Dungan Revolt of 1862-1877. If you go right now and please do, to the wikipedia article on the Dungan Revolt, check out the list of Belligerents. You will see the Qing, the Russian Empire, a short lived state called the Kashgaria, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire and an unbelievable number of Muslim rebel groups from all over the place. Events like this do not live in a bubble, as we say in the research world of neuroscience, this requires multivariable analysis. Well that's what I hope to accomplish, in a single episode. Now I expect when I say the Dungan Revolt, the first question that comes to mind for many of you is, who are Dungans? Its complicated. They can be described as Turkic or Chinese speaking, Hui Muslim people who inhabitant Xinjiang province, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Tajikistan and parts of modern Russia. Now you are saying, wait are they Turks or Chinese, thats a very politically motivated question haha. Today you could call them, Hui, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs, Uzbeks, Tatars, etc. In essence they inhibit a part of the world that has so many different groups around and their history goes very deep, before the time of the Qing dynasty. When the Qianlong Emperor hit the scene in the early 18th century, he named the province Xinjiang, meaning “new frontier” and the people there were known by many as Hui, but specifically for those Chinese speaking muslims in the northwest, well they were often referred to as Dungans. Prior to the Qing rule, Xinjiang was ruled by the Oirat Mongols of the Dzungar Khanate. I am sure you veteran listeners before I came to this podcast know much of these peoples and their history, you probably could teach me a thing or two, as this is very much so out of my specialization. One thing you might remember that I touched upon I believe in the very first episode of this podcast series was the Dzungar genocide. As ordered by the Qianlong Emperor  “"Show no mercy at all to these rebels. Only the old and weak should be saved. Our previous military campaigns were too lenient. If we act as before, our troops will withdraw, and further trouble will occur. If a rebel is captured and his followers wish to surrender, he must personally come to the garrison, prostrate himself before the commander, and request surrender. If he only sends someone to request submission, it is undoubtedly a trick. Tell Tsengünjav to massacre these crafty Zunghars. Do not believe what they say." It is estimated perhaps 80 percent of the 600,000 or so Dzungars were killed through war and disease between 1755-1758, enough to argue the annihilation of them as a people. Now with Xinjiang so devastated and depopulated, the Qing sponsored a large-scale settlement of Han, Hui, Uyghur, Manchu and other Chinese. Thus the demographics of the region changed dramatically, Xinjiang became mostly Uyghurs around 60% or so, followed by 30% Han and Hui and the rest of various minority groups like Manchu. The Qing did their best to unify Xinjiang, and one of their policies was to turn over 17,000 acres of steppe grassland over to Han Chinese to farm and colonize. Some historians point this out to be an attempt to replace Uyghurs, but in truth its messier than just that, as the Qing also banned Han Chinese from settled in Uyghur concentrated areas of the province. Now the Oirat Mongol's come back to the scene, this time in the form of the Kalmyk Khanate. They were mostly Tibetan Buddhists and in 1770, over 300,000 of them tried to seize control of parts of Xinjiang from the Qing. However when they began their great expedition, their traditional rivals the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz attacked them the entire way leading them to show up to Xinjiang, worn out, starving and ridden with disease. Many of them simply came and surrendered to the Qing upon arrival and managed to settle within Qing territory. Now these were nomadic people, but the Qing demanded they give up the nomadic lifestyle to take up farming, which was a deliberate policy to break them as a people. They utterly failed at becoming farmers and quickly fell into poverty, undergoing such horrors as selling their own children into slavery, becoming prostitutes, bandits, and such, terrible times. Alongside the terrible treatment of the new coming Kalmyks, Uyghurs were being abused by Manchu officials. It is said Manchu officials were gang raping Uyghur women, such as the official Su-cheng. A rebellion occurred, and the Qing violently quelled. There were reports of mass rape by Manchu troops causing even more hatred from the Uyghur population.  Now fast forward to the Taiping Rebellion, during 1862 as Taiping forces approached Shaanxi province, the local population began to form militias known as the Yong Ying. The Yong Ying or “brave camps” were similar to our friend Zeng Guofans “Yung-Ying” Xiang army, just less well structured and terribly under equipped. If they were lucky the Qing government would hand over some Jingalls, but more or less the old sword and spear were their choice of weapon. Now the Yong Ying's being propped up by the Qing were Han Chinese, but around them were large populations of Muslim Chinese who, well lets just say were having PTSD episodes from the countless atrocities performed upon them by these same people for centuries now. So the Muslim groups formed their own Yong Ying's and this is where our story really begins.  In 1862 sporadic conflicts such as skirmishes between groups, riots, smaller uprisings and such. They ran the gambit for reasons, could be just a barroom brawl as they saw, trivial type of stuff. During this time any rebel groups that emerged drew attention from the Qing and by proxy association were believed to be possibly working with the Taiping. To add some more chaos to the situation, the Green Standard army as you would assume took its recruits from populaces all over China. Their job much more as a police force than a real army was to keep things running smoothly in all the provinces of the Qing dynasty. In northwest China this meant numerous Hui and other muslim chinese groups were amongst their ranks and thus training for combat and armed, so keep that in mind. There were numerous incidents that sprung the Dungan revolt, but one in particular involved of all things the price of bamboo poles. Some Han merchants were overcharging Hui and this led to a major fight. Bamboo poles were traditionally used to make spears. During a time of major conflict and open rebellion suddenly the Hui communities began to buy large quantities of bamboo poles and this led to the belief they were planning to set up an Islamic state in northwestern China. Organized mosques run by popular mullahs in Shaanxi were purchasing more and more bamboo poles, which they were indeed making into spears. The Hui communities were worried about their safety, seeing all these local militias pop up meant there would be fighting over resources and such. Well the non muslim merchants, mostly Han saw the paint on the wall and were obviously worried about selling bamboo poles to people who might attack them, or better said might defend themselves. Thus many merchants began to increase the prices on bamboo poles and this led to a major uprising known as the Shengshan bamboo incident.  Manchu general Duolongga, the same man we talked about during the Taiping Rebellion was leading a cavalry unit in the north when the Hui revolt suddenly turned into a siege laid against Xi'an in Shaanxi province. Duolongga led a campaign against the muslim bands and by 1863 the siege was lifted and the rebels were pushed out of Shaanxi into neighboring Gansu province. In Gansu the Muslim leaders began to spread rumors of an impending Qing crackdown on muslims. They spread fear that the Qing would soon massacre many and this allowed them to organize another siege, this time against Ling-chou, a large city 40 miles north from Jinjipu. Jinjipu happened to be the HQ of a major Muslim leader named Ma Hualong, more about him later. While Lingzhou was laid siege, another strategic city was also attacked by Muslim forces, the city of Lanchow. The Governor General at Lanchow, En-lin reacted by trying to apply a policy of reconciliation. He advocated to the Qing court to not alienate the Muslims and began sending edicts in Gansu reiterating non-discrimination policies towards Muslims. His efforts seem to have been all for naught, as the rumors of a Qing massacre upon the muslims won out the day and large scale violence just grew. Within Eastern Gangsu, many of the Shaanxi Muslim refugees formed the what became known as the “18 great battalions”. Their purpose was to train and arm themselves to take back their homes in Shaanxi. Now while Gansu and Shaanxi were kicking off the beginnings of the Dungan revolt, this also opened the door to more groups to join in. Yaqub Bek, was born in the town of Pskente in the Khanate of Kokand, today's Uzbekistan. There region he lived in was drawn into conflict continuously with outsiders like the Russian and from within as it was deeply factionalized. Yaqub Bek claimed to be a descendant of Timur Gurkani the Turco-Mongol conqueror of the Timurid Empire, probably a ruse to give himself more credibility as a great ruler. He conspired against factions such as the Qipchaqs, taking part in a horrible event known as the Qipchaq massacre. Eventually in the 1860's he fought for the Kokand khanate as a General against the Russians, but they defeated them in 1866 resulting in the major loss of Tashkent. The ruler of Khokand, Sadik Beg dispatched Yakub Beg to Kashgar to raise and find new troops amongst Muslim allies. Yaqub Beg instead invaded Kashgar, defeated its Chinese defenders and declared himself ruler. Now Yaqub Beh was stuck between the forces of the Russian, British and Chinese empires who were all vying for control of the surrounding area, this was part of something called “the great game” which I simply cannot get into for it is too great, pun intended. Thus Yaqub Beg began a campaign that basically saw him conquer Xinjiang province, and this drew the ire of the Qing as you can imagine.  So the Qing were now dealing with multiple Muslim rebel groups in the northwest and on top of this some of them were foreigners, who held considerable backing. The Qing dynasty sent one of their most formidable Generals, Zuo Zongtang in 1867 to Shaanxi to pacify the region. Zuo Zongtang as you already know was instrumental in the downfall of the Taiping, working closely with Zeng Guofan. Zuo Zongtangs task was to restore the peace, promote agricultural output particularly that of grain and cotton and to promote Confucian education. As we have seen throughout the series, northwestern China is a rough place to live, stricken with poverty and thus Zuo Zongtang would not be able to rely on the resources of the territory he would have to look elsewhere. This led Zuo Zongtang to immediately demand the Qing court help fund the expedition as he personally began to take out major loans worth millions of taels from foreigners. Zuo Zongtang wanted to prepare massive amounts of supplies before going on the offensive, a smart move. Zeng Guofan likewise helped his subordinate by allocating him 10,000 Xiang forces, led by General Liu Songshan to bolster Zuo Zongtang's 55,000 man army. Zuo Zongtang's forces were mostly Hunanese, but there were also men from Henan, Anhui and Sichuan as well. Because of the Taiping Rebellion, Zuo Zongtang was a proficient army raiser now and he did his best to train the men in a western fashion and outfit them with western arms. As I had mentioned, Zuo Zongtang was one of the champions of modernization and established the Lanzhou arsenal in 1872 which produced Remington breech loading type rifles for his forces alongside artillery and munitions. Now that name, Ma Hualong I had mentioned comes up here a bit. He was the leader of the Jahriyya, known also as “the new teaching”. They were something of a Muslim sect in Gansu province and had been around since the 1760s.They periodically rebelled as a group and caused conflict with other groups, including muslim ones. When Ma Hualong took the leadership position in 1849 he gradually began to build up their forces and to do so he created a vast trade network using a caravan trade through Inner Mongolia and Beijing. His group became extremely wealthy and when the Dungan revolt heated up he began to use his trade network to purchase guns. Zuo Zongtang understandably was suspicious of the gun purchasing activity and deduced Ma Hualong sought to conquer parts of Inner Mongolia and rebel. Ma Hualong began collaborating with Muslim refugees fleeing Shaanxi for Gansu and this led to conflicts with the Qing. General Liu Songshan ended up dying in combat while campaigning against multiple Muslim militia groups, some of which were controlled by Ma Haulong. Meanwhile Zuo Zongtang was finishing up suppressing Shaanxi and establishing control over the province when he finally had a free hand to deal with Ma Hualong who had heavily fortified Jinjipu into a stronghold. Zuo Zongtang's forces erected a siege upon Jinjipu using Krupps field guns, the good old fashion sappers tunneling with mines tactic and the age old classic of starving out the enemy. After 16 months of siege, starvation took its toll upon the defenders prompting Ma Hualong to surrender his forces in January of 1871. Ma Hualong hoped to save the majority of his people, but Jinjipu saw a massacre, thousands lose their lives and the town was rape, plundered and raized. Zuo Zongtang ordered the execution of Ma Hualong, his son Ma Yaobang and 80 Muslim rebel leaders via “Lingchi / death by slicing”. This was a horrible form of execution where a sharp object like a knife was used to slowly remove portions of ones body over long periods of time until the person died. Once done with Ma Hualong, Zuo Zongtang set his eyes upon another Muslim rebel leader named Ma Zhan'ao. Ma Zhan'ao worked loosely with Ma Hualong, but his stronghold was at Hezhou, present day Linxia. He controlled the region west of Lanzhou and benefited from Ma Hualong's vast trade network managing to arm his rebel forces. Unlike Ma Hualong who was of the “new teaching” sect, Ma Zhan'ao was of the “Khafiya / old teaching” sect and they proscribing trying to peacefully exist amongst the non muslim Qing population. When the Dungan revolt began, Ma Zhan'ao escorted numerous Han Chinese to the nearest safe area of Yixin and he did not attempt to conquer the area nor molest them. Regardless he was one of the major muslim leaders purchasing arms and earned the attention of Zuo Zongtang who began an offensive against his forces in 1872. Initially his muslim defenders inflicted heavy losses upon Zuo Zongtang's army much to the frustration of Zuo Zongtang. But Ma Zhan'ao did not want war and he dispatched his General Ma Chun to try and negotiate with General Zuo Zongtang. He offered to surrender his stronghold to the Qing and provide assistance to the Qing dynasty in quelling the Dungan revolt. Zuo Zongtang suspected this all to be a ruse, but the Qing ordered him to abide by the mutual assistance and indeed Ma Zhan'ao did assist the Qing. Zuo Zongtang began to pacify other areas, while Ma Zhan'ao basically saved his people from annihilation. To this very day the area he controlled holds a muslim population who control the Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture. Many of Ma Zhan'ao's generals like Ma Qianling and Ma Haiyan defected to the Qing, including his son Ma Anliang who proved themselves instrumental to helping Zuo Zongtangs campaign. As Zuo Zongtang pacified the areas he was soon awarded governor generalship over Shaanxi and Gansu. At this point Zuo Zongtang loosely followed a strategy of divide and conquer. Those Muslim groups part of the New Teaching he violently massacred, but those of the old teachings he tried to persuade defection to the Qing. The Qing government likewise began to make edicts stating the Muslim rebels did not represent all muslim chinese, just as all the White Lotus rebels back in the early part of the century did not represent all buddhists. They advocated the Muslim community take up the old teachings over the new teachings.  With the help of the Dungan people of Hezhou Zuo Zongtang then turned his gaze west towards Xinjiang to defeat the forces of Yaqub Beg. Zuo Zongtang was now joined by defected Dungan armies led by Generals like Ma Anliang, Dong Fuxiang. By 1875 Zuo Zongtang had assembled men and supplies along the Gansu corridor and the next year began his campaign by attacking Urumchi where he massacres their garrison. Next he besieged Manas for over a month until they surrendered. Allegedly the garrison were allowed to march out of the city with weapons, but it seemed to Zuo Zongtang's commanders in the field they were planning an armed break out so they were all put to the sword as well. The women and children were spared luckily. Zuo Zongtang established a HQ at Gucheng while the Russian Empire annexed the Khanate of Kokand, squeezing Yakub Beg further. In September of 1876, Yakub Beh received reports a Chinese army was on the march 700 miles to the east and he began to prepare his defenses. He built up fortifications at Turfan and in 1877 he was visited by Aleksey Kuropatkin. Kuropatkin was sent on a diplomatic mission to Yaqub Beg to try and resolve some Russian border claims over the Fergana Valley. Kuropatkin told him he had around 17,000 troops spread over the Fergana Valley region and that he could not hope to match them. Yaqub Beg was in a very bad situation. The Chinese army had entered Urumqi pretty much unopposed, many of his eastern forces were defecting over to the Qing and in the west they were defecting to the Russians. In the spring the Chinese attacked the fort of Davanchi which lay between Urumchi and Turfan. Simultaneously an army led by Chang Yao seized Pichuan just 50 miles east of Turfan. Yaqub Beg's forces were shrinking from lost battles, desertions and defections. The Qing forces attacked Turfan where Yaqub Beg's men were beaten badly, so he fled to Toksun. At Toksun the Qing pursued him quickly and defeated him again, so he fled to Karashar, and then Korla. All of the fleeing demoralized his troops causing further desertions and defections. It would be at Korla where Yaqub Beg died and historians are uncertain as to exactly how or when. The Qing claimed he died on May 22, while Aleksey Kuropatkin claimed it was May 29th. What he died of is a bit of a mystery. The Russians state he died of illness, multiple historians think it was poisoning. Some modern historians think it could have been a stroke. Regardless with Yaqub Beg dead this pretty much closed the curtain on his forces control over the area. In autumn of 1877, Zuo Zongtang had kept his forces around Turfan as it was the hot season and he wished to gather further supplies, when he received news of the death of Yaqub Beg. Yaqub Begs forces disorganized into multiple rebel groups without a real leader consolidating anything. Zuo Zongtang sent advance parties to occupy Karashar and Korla meeting limited resistance. Zuo Zongtans army pushed the rebels further west until he eventually seized Kashgar with barely a fight and this led notable cities like Yarkand and Kohtan to submit. Xinjiang was officially reconquered by the Qing. The rebel groups dissolved gradually and no large scale revolts would occur for some time in the northwest. In 1884 Xinjiang was established as a province officially again. Zuo Zongtangs Xiang army and other Han Chinese troops began purchasing Uyghur girls from their parents to take as wives, relying often on their Hui allies to work as translators. Countless Uyghur muslim women would be married off to Han Chinese in Xinjiang during the late 19th to early 20th century. This was not limited to Han Chinese under the Qing as plenty of Hindu, Armenians, Jews and Russians also did the same. A large rationale for the situation was the amount of male depopulation from the area which caused a vacuum of single women.  The punishments for the leaders who caused the Dungan revolt were harsh. Many of the songs of the Muslim leaders were castrated by the Qing imperial household department once they hit 11 years of age and they were sent to work as eunuch slaves for Qing held garrisons in Xinjiang. Many of the wives of the Muslim leaders were likewise enslaved. To give you an idea of how prevalent this was, the Muslim leader Ma Guiyuan had 9 of his sons castrated by the Qing. The Muslim leaders themselves were mostly executed by Lingchi. Yaqub Beg and his son Ishana's corpses were burned in public view. Yaqub had 4 other sons who died imprisoned at Lanzhou, Gansu or were killed by the Qing authorities upon discovery. Even Yaqub Beg's grandchildren were hunted for, many of which were caught and executed or castrated.  The Dungan revolt led to mass migration all over the place. Some Hui people fled to Russia, settling in places like Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Within the Qing dynasty, the Hui Generals who defected were all promoted by the Emperor such as Dong Fuxiang and Ma Anliang. The power of these pro Qing Hui forces would become quite important to the Qing military further down the road, particularly during the Boxer Rebellion.    I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Well I hope you enjoyed my butchering of the Dungan Revolt, again I did my best to tell it in regards to its significance to the history of China. In reality it was part of something known as the “great game” that had had a long lasting impact on many other nations history.

How-diddly-owdy, listeners! Korla and Audrey bring you a very personal episode this week with a lot of feelings and horny talk. Digimon this week is also really cool, with some serious evolution of the stakes and a lot of time with Gatomon and best boy of all time, Wizardmon. Give it a listen! Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey & @Korla_Neumono Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast!

It's a special week on Fangs for the Memories because we are finally talking about Hush! Leslie and Kayte are joined by pals Korla (@Korla_Neumono) and Audrey (@rftbAudrey) from  Data Transfer! This episode has it all: sex! Violence! Giggles! Non sequitors! Video game references that go over Kayte's head!Listen to Data Transfer!Listen to Radio Free Tote Bag!Follow Fangs on Twitter!Join our Patreon for special episodes!

haha so I kept forgetting to post the episode because I had to watch School of Rock with Korla so sorry it's late! Donovan and Audrey embark on a quest to defeat their question backlog (unplanned) and answer your questions in this shamble to the finish line. The holidays are almost over folks. We're gonna make it!

This week, we have one of Korla's furry friends as a guest and the energy gets bonkers as a result. Join us as Audrey desperately tries to keep the show on task between bits and people being horny about udders! It's good fun! Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey & @Korla_Neumono Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast!

Welcome to an extra special episode of Data Transfer, recorded on Korla's birthday with both hosts in the same room! Audrey struggles to wrangle us on track even more than usual, while Korla gushes about her birthday and how cute the femmes in her life are. ONION VOLCANO! Oh yeah, there's also a really good episode of Digimon to talk about with a vampire twink and some real Bloodborne-ass moments. Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey & @Korla_Neumono Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast! Email us at datatransferpod@gmail.com

Folks, we're heading into Thanksgiving and we just moved and we're tired. So we're taking the week off for the main show and unlocking a modern classic, our talk with Jim E. Brown! Please enjoy!Follow Jim on Spotify!https://open.spotify.com/artist/6DeLyy3rTPFUgp2jDnKBKR?si=vJF1rFh8SA2frI_5NcCakAListen to Audrey's Digimon podcast she does with her Partner, Korla!https://data-transfer.castos.com/

Hihi folks! This week, our hosts have extreme :3 energy. We also get our first listener email as we follow Tai & Agumon back into the real world for some surprisingly well-animated shenanigans. Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey & @KorlaNeumono Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast!

Oh shit, welcome to the east coast folks! It's another week of Data Transfer with your guests Audrey and Korla, and this week we're joined by the inimitable Katie Rose Leon! We share some new jewelry, get Katie's thoughts on Digimon (she has a lot of them), and follow the exploits of an enormous chicken being really creepy on a boat! It's a good time for everyone. Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey, @KorlaNeumono & @katierose Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast!

Heyhey, folks! This time we've got ourselves an awesome guest in the form of Lotion Wizard, and she has some provocative thoughts about Digimon. Your erstwhile hosts Audrey and Korla get to talking about their daily lives and the kind of nerd bullshit that fills them, and the episode itself is a heck of a ride including giant skeleton dragons and soccer. You won't wanna miss it! Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey, @KorlaNeumono and @old_lotion Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast!

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine, folks. It's Data Transfer, and we have our very first guest episode! We're joined by the wonderful Kennedy Cooper and let me tell you, they're a real blast on this one. We also get Korla's favorite digimon of this season, much to Audrey's chagrin. Now, a little less conversation and a little more episode description. After five days of travel, the Digidestined make it to Server Continent without incident thanks to Whamon. After they get their bearings, they rush over to a Koromon village in the forest that is mysteriously lacking in Koromon. Instead, we get some cheeky lil rabbit guys who kidnap TK's li'l baby and chuck him behind a waterfall. With a little help and guile from Agumon, the team manage to find Tokomon as well as the captive Koromon. Then we get to see the best Digimon of this whole dang season, Etemon, who comes at the team with electric guitar and pure charisma. While escaping from Etemon, the team happens upon Tai's crest and run off to figure out a plan of counterattack. Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey & @KorlaNeumono Guest Twitter: @kennedytcooper Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast! And while you're at it, check out Sentai Truther Club and The Worst Week Yet to find more of the charismatic Kennedy Cooper!

We're Back! A Furry Lovers' Story. Seriously tho, we're all settled back into our regular recording situations and excited to bring you this scene-setting episode for the rest of Digimon Adventure together! Also, Korla's more of a brat than usual this week. With Devimon defeated, new old weirdo Jennai informs the kids there's an even bigger Satan out there to deal with. Maybe more than one! And he tasks the children with defeating them, as the Digidestined are supposedly the only ones who can. With the (cool as heck) help of their erstwhile enemies, the kids make a raft to cross the ocean to the Server Continent. It is then immediately destroyed as they get vored by Whamon, but it's all fine cuz he's actually cool so he takes them the rest of the way there. Plus, they find one half of their next powerup located in an undersea convenience store. There is also a drill-nosed mole down there, pretty spoopy stuff. Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey & @KorlaNeumono Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast!

It's not quite Halloween yet, but we're coming at you with a spooky episode of Digimon Adventure! Audrey and Korla share a little bit about their busy week, and everyone's pretty darn relaxed as we make our way into our digital journey. Joe & Gomamon are caught on the ocean with no island or ice floe to work with. Ogremon pops by to show them what a crate guy he is, but they're having none of it and escape after Gomamon digivolves to carry Joe away. They fail to make it far, and the two of them sink under the water. Also, Sora's having a great time fishing! This ends abruptly when she catches Joe on her line, and the two of them head off for shelter or signs of their friends. What they end up finding is Bakemon, a set of spooky ghosts that can combine into one bigger, spookier ghost! They defeat Bakemon with some truly wild The Secret tactics, and set their island on track to meet back with the island. Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey & @KorlaNeumono Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast!

What's crackin' Tote Land!It's Audrey here with a special lil thing for your ears!Friend of the show, partner of the me, Korla and I have been cookin' up a new show called Data Transfer and I'm so excited to debut it on the RFTB Main Feed!It's a transfeminine reading of the Digimon Adventures anime, starting from the very beginning, which is where you are now! Look for weekly episodes over at data-transfer.castos.com in the future, but for right now you can listen to the first ten episodes!We're gay, we're trans, we're in love and we're gonna talk about what it looks like when Greymon fucks.

Our hosts, Audrey and Korla, introduce themselves and some of their interests! The show introduces us to its cast! Did you know Digimon Adventure 01 starts by casually dropping global climate disaster? Tai starts strong with the backhanded compliments. Isekai-rora Borealis?! Handhelds that predate the show itself! Despite being cute, the Digimon come off pretty spooky. Kuwagamon is BIG and SCARY and also a BUG. That's all, folks! Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey & @KorlaNeumono Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast!

POO WARNING! You have been warned!! We return once more with your favorite weirdo queer hos, Audrey and Korla. When they're not being incredibly gay, they're playing even more video games together and getting (eugh) schwifty with it again... This episode starts at it means to go on with walking through a sewer and poop monsters stalking the party. One of them even develops a crush on Mimi, a fact the hosts continuously lament. Eventually the gang splits up when the poop gets mad at them, which leads to our antagonist for this episode--Monzaemon--picking them off one by one. Mimi and Palmon are the only sane ones left after the rest of the kids are hypnotized and forced to run around Toy Town, a genuine nightmare of a place. We also get to see Palmon's digivolution, and she's got boxing gloves! Gonna give 'em the old one-two! Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey & @KorlaNeumono Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast!

Welcome back, folks! Your beloved hosts Korla and Audrey are keeping themselves in vinegar veggies and cute clothes, but more than that they're dealing with cold season. Will Audrey ever get over her cold? Will Korla make it there to give her poor girlfriend some tissues? This one's a Joe 'sode!! The kids have made their way towards the center of the island, by a big towering feature the digimon call Infinity Mountain. Joe's trying to get everyone to take their circumstances seriously, but keeps getting shut down for being a fuddy-duddy. When he goes to scout the top of the mountain by himself, however, he ends up accosted by Unimon with a black gear stuck all up in him. Oh no! Snarky evil horse! He's gonna need the help of his friends for this one, and also the help of Gomamon turning into the most lethal thing we've seen yet with missiles coming out of his head. Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey & @KorlaNeumono Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast!

Foooooolks! We're back once again with Data Transfer, following your hosts Audrey and Korla. They're especially stoked to be here this week to discuss Digimon Adventure for your listening pleasure, and also kicking the asses of mythical creatures in video games! Good job, Audrey~ This episode starts off almost feeling like a different anime entirely, with new characters Leomon and Ogremon duking it out. We're introduced to yet another character, and our recurring villain for the next good while, Devimon! He's a Satan! He ends up mind controlling Leomon and ordering Ogremon to go after the children, who are just now trying to get down the mountain and make a plan for living on this strange island. They manage to just barely make their way down even with an attack from our new villains, finding themselves an out-of-place mansion to get a good night's rest in. The mansion ends up being too good to be true, however, and when the illusion dissipates Devimon takes the sleeping Digidestined and scatters them across the island before splitting the island apart into drifting pieces. Wild stuff! Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey & @KorlaNeumono Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast!

This week, as with every week, Audrey and Korla have your back with another episode of Digimon Adventures to discuss! Korla got to see the Pride festival in her town for the first time, even got to party~. Audrey got to see her own event, and by the sound of it it's a pretty rad time! Frigimon! Frigimon! We love the big ice man, folks. We begin where the last episode left off, with each kid & digimon pair stranded on rapidly drifting chunks of broken island. Tai and Agumon in particular end up on an ice floe, desperately making their way to warmth and shelter when a black gear-infested Frigimon comes after them. We love this big fluffy man, and we love his 'we couldn't afford Dom Deluise' vocal performance. Before long, Tai and Agumon manage to catch up with Matt and Gabumon, but finding his little brother is their next priority and that part doesn't seem so easy. Oh yeah, also Mojyamon happens and that's pretty unfortunate. Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey & @KorlaNeumono Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast!

Poo warning!! Some cartoon poo in this one folks, beware! It's our proper release episode, and we're incredibly excited to get this show out to y'all! Audrey and Korla discuss the circle of life, the scourge of mosquitos, retail hell, and just how gosh darn cute Audrey is. Our second double-protag episode, this time with Mimi and Izzy! Mimi continues to live with her curse of poop creature falling in love with her, but at least this one has a little mouse buddy. She and Palmon quickly end up chased to Izzy's position in a strange ruin filled with markings that the little nerd is trying to decipher. However, his insistence on focusing on the translation task ends up upsetting Mimi pretty bad, causing her to run off with Tentomon in fast pursuit. Centarumon introduces himself, all Black Gear'd up, by attempting to murder Mimi while she doesn't have her digimon with her. With some help from Izzy and Palmon leading them through the maze of a facility, our heroes manage to reunite and smack some sense back into their horsey friend. We even get a juicy lore drop: these kids are part of a prophecy, and they're gonna save the world! Tune in next time for more, folks! Intro & Outro music: Dating Start! by Toby Fox Twitter: @rftbAudrey & @KorlaNeumono Check out Radio Free Tote Bag, Audrey's relationship advice podcast!

This week, Andrew and Deanna were joined by our pal Korla to discuss whether or not THIS was The Worst Week Yet. Topics include: shitting your pants is American, Bison updates, Florida police protect manatee fuck piles, a snake expert dies in a way you'd never predict, Cancel Culture comes for David Guetta, police taze some parents, FBI concludes Alec Baldwin shot that lady, a nearly perfect crime comes crashing down, did Michelle Branch's husband deserve to get slapped?, The CDC says “ehhh fuck it”, North Korea defeats covid, Climate change reveals corpses and curses, CPAC has something for everyone, And the FBI tries to take down Trump! Patreon.com/worstweekyet Send us emails: Worstweekyet@gmail.com Follow the pod across platforms: @WorstWeekYet Follow Andrew: @Andrewhilaryus Follow Deanna: @Ddddeanna Follow Korla: @Korla_Neumono

Giddy up gang, new year new me! Dono comin out as NB on this one and we have friend of the show and partner of the Audrey here to celebrate, it's Korla! So we talk about that business, seltzer burps, and video games before gettin into your questions: Paralyzed and unable to date bc of a hang up on an ex from long ago | Dating while working a "dirty job" | Caught partner masturbating to someone they know | Strong feelings for a friend you only see once or twice a year due to distance | Update on the question about panic attacks during sex | A nice new years message Thanks again to Korla for joining us! Follow her on Twitter @Korla_Neumono And thank you for tuning in! You can support the show and get a bonus episode each week at Patreon.com/rftb as well as other neat bonus stuff! Wow!

Ikgadējo rubriku „Cilvēks ziņu virsrakstos” šoreiz sākam ar notikumu, kuru gaidīja visa pasaule un kuram sekojot, pagājis arī viss aizvadītais gads. Proti – pasaule un Latvija beidzot sagaidīja ilgi gaidītās vakcīnas pret Covid-19. Būt vienai no divām pirmām vakcinētājām Latvijā bijis uztraucoši, jo pirmos dūrienus uzmanījuši desmitiem kolēģu, mediju un slimnīcas administrācijas pārstāvju acu pāru. Par vakcināciju pret Covid-19 saruna ar Rīgas Austrumu klīniskās universitātes slimnīcas, Latvijas infektoloģijas centra, infektoloģijas poliklīnikas medicīnas māsu Ludmilu Korlašu. "Esmu Ludmila Korlaša. Esmu medmāsa Rīgas Austrumu slimnīcā. Medmāsas stāžs man ir 44 gadi, bet pēdējos trīs gadus es strādāju tieši uz vakcīnām Latvijas Infekoloģijas centrā," iepazīstina Ludmila Korlaša. Ludmila pirms intervijas neslēpj satraukumu – viņa ir darītāja un nevis tā, kura plātās ar paveikto. Ludmila Korlaša Latvijas vēsturē paliks ar to, ka ir viena no divām medicīnas māsām, kura Latvijā pirmā vakcinējusi pret Covid-19.

It's Audrey motherfuckers! And we're celebratin with friend of the show Korla and a whole big question box. We talk transitions and Audrey's experience over the past few months, get an embarassing story from Korla, and then get into the celebratory cornucopia y'all sent us - the Q box: Resisting temptation, avoiding Moses' wrath! Hopefully | Partner is upset with your "messy" wing eating. How would it not be messy come on | Where did the name come from? A Donofan asks | Who is the hottest US president embrace debate | Reaching people on either side of you as a leftist Christian | Wife of 20 years upset by your dating past - how to navigate Thanks again to Korla for joining us for this very special episode and congrats again to Audrey on coming out :) And hey thank you for listening! Hear from us more this week and get like 30 previous bonus episodes at Patreon.com/rftb

Remembering Korla Pandit and revealing his secrets. Korla Pandit, the amazing musician who played entrancing exotic music as he silently stared into the television camera with his mesmerizing gaze was not what you were led to believe. Korla had a secret and if it was found out, he would have lost his career and quite possibly his family. Even after his death, his own children and grandchildren were hard pressed to believe the truth behind his deep, dark secret. He is known as the God Father of Exotica music and was a trail blazer in more ways than one. The film covers the arc of Korla's career, from having his own music show on television in the 1950's to years later where he developed a cult following playing tiki bars and lounges. The secret of his true identity, he carried to his grave and was revealed only after his death in 1998. We are thrilled to have on the Mid-Modcast John Turner and Eric Christensen the creators of the Korla Movie. GET THE KORLA MOVIE NOW! https://ondemand.drafthouse.com/film/korla/ Follow The Korla Movie on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/korlathemovie Find us on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Midmodcast Twitter: @midmodcast https://twitter.com/MidModcast Email: midmodcast@gmail.com We would love to hear from you, and we are always interested in new show ideas. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast and give us a great review. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-midmodcast/id1521672835 Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8yODQ4NDk1MC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw== Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/56KRzqjxzI1NTksjICLTsx Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1521672835/the-midmodcast Anchor: https://anchor.fm/the-mid-modcast Thanks for being our friend. - You're Swell!

Compared to the provinces’s native Uyghur population, Han Chinese settlers in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have not attracted as much scholarly or indeed journalistic attention of late. But in a profoundly troubled and troubling present for Xinjiang, one that is thankfully now gaining somewhat more notice from concerned parties worldwide, Tom Cliff’s Oil and Water: Being Han in Xinjiang (University of Chicago Press, 2016) offers us vital insight into precisely this group of people. Based on years of residence in Korla, an oil industry hub in southern Xinjiang, Cliff draws us close to the thoughts, dreams, beliefs, aspirations and legends of his interlocutors, answering in rich ethnographic detail a question he has been posing himself since 2001: ‘What is it like to be a Han person living in Xinjiang?’ (p. 4). Whilst not always offering full closure on this complicated and shifting subject – and allowing readers to examine for themselves a vivid and compelling array of photographs he has taken there over the years – Cliff nevertheless leads readers to some stark conclusions regarding how China’s Xinjiang frontier operates, and what the political centre is trying to achieve there. The implications of the colonial processes he describes are as dark and devastating as they are important, but appear all the more inexorable for the very human level on which they are unfolding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Compared to the provinces’s native Uyghur population, Han Chinese settlers in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have not attracted as much scholarly or indeed journalistic attention of late. But in a profoundly troubled and troubling present for Xinjiang, one that is thankfully now gaining somewhat more notice from concerned parties worldwide, Tom Cliff’s Oil and Water: Being Han in Xinjiang (University of Chicago Press, 2016) offers us vital insight into precisely this group of people. Based on years of residence in Korla, an oil industry hub in southern Xinjiang, Cliff draws us close to the thoughts, dreams, beliefs, aspirations and legends of his interlocutors, answering in rich ethnographic detail a question he has been posing himself since 2001: ‘What is it like to be a Han person living in Xinjiang?’ (p. 4). Whilst not always offering full closure on this complicated and shifting subject – and allowing readers to examine for themselves a vivid and compelling array of photographs he has taken there over the years – Cliff nevertheless leads readers to some stark conclusions regarding how China’s Xinjiang frontier operates, and what the political centre is trying to achieve there. The implications of the colonial processes he describes are as dark and devastating as they are important, but appear all the more inexorable for the very human level on which they are unfolding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Compared to the provinces’s native Uyghur population, Han Chinese settlers in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have not attracted as much scholarly or indeed journalistic attention of late. But in a profoundly troubled and troubling present for Xinjiang, one that is thankfully now gaining somewhat more notice from concerned parties worldwide, Tom Cliff’s Oil and Water: Being Han in Xinjiang (University of Chicago Press, 2016) offers us vital insight into precisely this group of people. Based on years of residence in Korla, an oil industry hub in southern Xinjiang, Cliff draws us close to the thoughts, dreams, beliefs, aspirations and legends of his interlocutors, answering in rich ethnographic detail a question he has been posing himself since 2001: ‘What is it like to be a Han person living in Xinjiang?’ (p. 4). Whilst not always offering full closure on this complicated and shifting subject – and allowing readers to examine for themselves a vivid and compelling array of photographs he has taken there over the years – Cliff nevertheless leads readers to some stark conclusions regarding how China’s Xinjiang frontier operates, and what the political centre is trying to achieve there. The implications of the colonial processes he describes are as dark and devastating as they are important, but appear all the more inexorable for the very human level on which they are unfolding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Compared to the provinces’s native Uyghur population, Han Chinese settlers in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have not attracted as much scholarly or indeed journalistic attention of late. But in a profoundly troubled and troubling present for Xinjiang, one that is thankfully now gaining somewhat more notice from concerned parties worldwide, Tom Cliff’s Oil and Water: Being Han in Xinjiang (University of Chicago Press, 2016) offers us vital insight into precisely this group of people. Based on years of residence in Korla, an oil industry hub in southern Xinjiang, Cliff draws us close to the thoughts, dreams, beliefs, aspirations and legends of his interlocutors, answering in rich ethnographic detail a question he has been posing himself since 2001: ‘What is it like to be a Han person living in Xinjiang?’ (p. 4). Whilst not always offering full closure on this complicated and shifting subject – and allowing readers to examine for themselves a vivid and compelling array of photographs he has taken there over the years – Cliff nevertheless leads readers to some stark conclusions regarding how China’s Xinjiang frontier operates, and what the political centre is trying to achieve there. The implications of the colonial processes he describes are as dark and devastating as they are important, but appear all the more inexorable for the very human level on which they are unfolding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The wonder twins are full, happy, and filled of love after Thanksgiving and they want to spread the wealth! They got a fun joyous episode for ya'll this week... but first! CANDYMAN... candyman, candyman! They deconstruct the horror movie from the 90s which was WAY more political than they remembered! They also discuss the amazing ageless Bianca Lawson, In the Korners...ooooooo she's back! Quizlet Korner has returned and this time she is called, What's Good In The Neighborhood? Will James finally get Nnekay with the Quiz?! SOme of the topics covered: gay porn and racism, Wes Goodman, HIV Drugs, Adoption, Grindr mysteries, and getting CAUGHT UP! In Nnekay's Korner- she takes James (and you) on a ride about two jazz pianist, Korla Pandit and John Roland Redd, and how their lives intersect and create magic. ALSO.... DRUMROLLLLLLL The winner is announced for the iTunes review raffle!!!! Happy Friday and have a good weekend, ya'll!   Twitter: @minoritykorner Email: minoritykorner@gmail.com Like Us On Facebook: Minority Korner   Guide To A Gay Bar: Straight Guy Edition Tip #1 Guide To A Gay Bar: Straight Guy Edition (Full Video)   Catch Nnekay At SF Sketch Fest w/ Her Comedy Team Nice Tan! Get Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nice-tan-queen-george-hosted-by-michelle-biloon-tickets-39890355126?ref=eios&aff=eios   Links!    Quizlet   http://www.newnownext.com/two-drug-regimen-hiv-approved/11/2017/   https://www.queerty.com/adult-film-star-hugh-hunter-calls-gayvn-awards-racism-declines-nominations-20171127   https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/accidental-thanksgiving-duo-spend-the-holiday-together-1820746149   http://www.theroot.com/trump-loving-nfl-protest-hating-police-union-chief-who-1820766920   https://www.queerty.com/antigay-lawmaker-caught-gay-sex-office-scrubs-internet-existence-20171116   https://www.queerty.com/time-disgraced-gop-rep-wes-goodman-fondled-male-teen-antigay-fundraiser-20171122   https://www.queerty.com/antigay-lawmaker-caught-gay-sex-office-scrubs-internet-existence-20171116   https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/grace-in-action-black-family-of-7-adopts-6-white-sibli-1820747560   Tale of Two Pianist   https://tinyurl.com/yddm52mq

  The mysterious Korla Pandit is back in the news with a new doco out so we will reveal Korla's secrets to you this week and swank advice on avoiding conflict on social media.   www.cocktailnation.net   Frank Bennett-Creep Hugo Montenegro-James Bond Theme Korla Pandit-Strange Enchantment Arthur Lyman-Voodoo Dreams Out Islanders-Return To Paradise Brent Laidler-Law Of Attraction Tiki Delights-Cosmolitan Bib Bad Voodoo Daddy-Cruel Spell Frank Sinatra -Ring a Ding Ding John Barry -Thunderball Nat King Cole-What Is There To Say Stanley  Turrentine-Blue Riff Combustible Edison The Veldt    

ncredibly skilled at the keyboard, Korla Panditcame into the houses of California housewives during the '50s with his hypnotic stare and tunes. The documentary film Korla tells the story of Pandit's life and the secret with which he lived for years. Special guests director John Turner and producer Eric Christensen talk about making the documentary.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Special Guests: John Turner, Eric ChristensenGuest Co-Host: Rob St. MaryIncredibly skilled at the keyboard, Korla Panditcame into the houses of California housewives during the '50s with his hypnotic stare and tunes. The documentary film Korla tells the story of Pandit's life and the secret with which he lived for years. Special guests director John Turner and producerEric Christensen talk about making the documentary.Rob St. Mary joins Mike to discuss the film, exotica music, and moreSupport The Projection Booth on PatreonLike The Projection Booth on FacebookFollow The Projection Booth on Twitter.

This week we take a good look behind the mask, with a selection of music which isn’t quite what it appears to be on first listen. We have Frenchmen pretending to be Japanese, a Japanese man pretending that Duke Ellington … Continue reading →

The musical world of Korla Pandit, the original Godfather of Exotica with John Turner, the creator of the new film "Korla". John talks about Korla's music, his effects on the public and his hidden secret.

It’s hard to imagine a world without televisions. Today, TVs are not just ubiquitous, they’re everywhere. But in the 1940s, television was an expensive, new gadget that very few households owned. When the World Series was televised for the first time in 1947, only 44,000 TV sets were in use in the entire U.S. In 1948, only ten percent of Americans had ever even seen a television program. The only thing more scarce than TV sets was TV programming. Radio had been widely adopted for decades, with over 40 million sets in use in the late 1940s. So, the majority of talent and advertising money was still going into radio. In addition, television was so new that no one had really figured out what to do on TV yet. In just a few years, skyrocketing viewership would cause radio hits like Dragnet and Jack Benny to move to television. But in its infancy, many early TV shows weren’t much more than radio with a picture. The traditional radio music program was adapted to TV by simply showing the musicians playing their instruments. That was a TV show. And, it was pretty amazing stuff by 1940s standards. A music show that premiered during those pioneering days of television was Korla Pandit’s Adventures In Music. It was broadcast out of KTLA in Los Angeles beginning in February 1949 and had more of a hook than your average music program. Pandit was Indian musical prodigy born in New Delhi. He played exotic themes on a Hammond organ or a piano (sometimes playing both instruments at once). As he played, the turban-clad musician gazed wistfully, directly into the camera. His only communication with the viewer was through his transe-like stare and what he called “the universal language of music.” He never spoke on the show. What at first glance seems like a simple music program became something wildly exotic and otherworldly. Pandit’s organ arrangements were accompanied by dark lighting, slow camera moves and close-ups of his eyes. The resulting show was all at once hypnotic, noir, exotic and surreal. He performed Adventures In Music live on the air, five days a week. Over 900 episodes were aired, but only a few survive to this day. Pandit’s show aired during TV’s boom years and he became wildly popular. In 1951, he played a two-hour concert at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium and was called back for three encores. A version of the show was syndicated to independent TV stations nationwide and he became a huge hit. He became friends with eastern religious figures and released dozens of albums. His music laid a foundation the exotica genre, made famous in the 1950s by musicians like Les Baxter, Martin Denny and Yma Sumac. But what seemed wild in the uptight days of 1948 was considered laughably tame by the freaky-deaky standards of 1968. Pandit and other exotica musicians fell out of favor. Korla Pandit’s celebrity faded, but he worked as a musician and a music teacher, and continued releasing albums through 1971. He reclaimed some of his fame during the exotica / lounge revival of the 1990s, but passed away shortly after. Director John Turner has just finished a feature documentary about Pandit’s life called Korla. The documentary doesn’t just tell the lost story of a TV pioneer or an Indian musician. It also tells a story that turns out to be uniquely American. And it’s based on a secret that Pandit kept hidden even from his own family. It’s a secret that wasn’t discovered until years after his death. Korla – Trailer from Appleberry Pictures on Vimeo.

Checking the extensive archives, we were surprised that we’ve not yet addressed ourselves to the element of Fire on Project Moonbase. With Beltane recently upon us, marking the beginning of Summer, what better time to turn the heat up and … Continue reading →

We’re getting all seasonal on the show this week as we take the weather, or more accurately the various forms of precipitation, for our musical theme. This was largely inspired by another track on the recently released Sachal Studios album … Continue reading →